
Class _El2?ii„ 






THE LIFE 



OP 



SAM HOUSTON 



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SAM HOUSTON 



THE 



LIFE 



OF 



SAM HOUSTON, 



( S^j^c Dnl2 ^ull)cntix pmot'r of lim jeSm puilijet^IJ.) 



WnOEVER LOVES AND SUPPORTS THAT CONSTITUTION STRICTLY, IS MT FELLOW." 

Gen. Houston's Speech on the Compromise Mecsiiros. 



L^h^^ 



ILLUSTRAl'ED 




NEW YOKK: 

J. 0. DERBY, 119 NASSAU STREET 

BOSTON : PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & CO. CINCINNATI : H. W. DERBY. 

1855. 






Entered, pjcarding to Act of Congress, by J. C. DERBY, in the Clerk's Office of the 

U. S. District Court for tlie Southern District of New York, in the year ' 

of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five. 



W. H. TINSON, 

BTKBEOTTPKC, 

'24 Beokmau Street. 



PUDNEY & RUSSKl-1, 

PaiNTEKS, 

79 John Street. 



S 



CONTENTS. 



Pag« 

SECTION FIRST. 

A REPUBLIC IN THE FORESTS. 

Trial Days to Nations— Rubicon Hours— Texas in the Union, 18 

SECTION SECOND. 

ANCESTRY AND YOUTH. 

Houston's Ancestry and Youth— Houston's Mother— Hard Work for the Boy- 
Emigration to the West — Houston's Education — He Becomes an Indian — Running 
Wild Among the Indians — Houston Studies the Indians — Indian Warriors in 
Washington— Houston a School-Teacher— He Joins the U. S. Army— To-ho-pe-ka, 17 

SECTION THIRD. 

THE SOLDIER. 

Houston under Gen. Jackson— The Creek Campaign— One Thousand Creek War- 
riors—The Indian Prophets— The Ruin of the Creek Nation— The Wounded 
Soldier — Houston on a Litter — The Soldier at Home — Afloat on the Mississippi — 
A Winter of Suffering— Houston's Vindication, 29 

SECTION FOURTH. 
THE CIVILIAN. 

Houston studies Law— Original Characters— Houston Admitted to the Bar— Elected 
to Congress— Separates from his Young Wife— Resignation of the Office of 
Governor— The Wigwam-Home, 42 

SECTION FIFTH. 

THE EXILE. 

The Exile— Houston's adopted Father— The Old Chief's Greeting— The Children of 
the Forests— Houston befriends the Red Man— His Opinion of the Indians— Fire- 
'Water among the Red Men — Houston's Enemies — Jackson, the Friend of Hous- 
ton—Attempts to kill Him— On Trial— Thirty Days of Public Trial— His Acquittal 
—He Returns to the Forests— The Hearth-Stone of a Savage King, ... 49 



TIU C X T E N T S . 

Page 
SECTION SIXTH. 

TEXAS— THE NEW FIELD. 

Forest Civic Life in Texas— First Convention In Texas— First Collision with Santa 
Anna— The Constitution of Texas— Houston's Policy for Texas— Austin Imprisoned 
—Public Meetings in Texas— Santa Anna's Tyranny— Texas Prepares for the 
Struggle— The Patriot Austin — Provisional Declaration of Independence — Hous- 
ton's Indian Costume — Commander-in-Ciiief — A Proclamation — Capitulation of the 
Alamo— The Spirit of Faction- Mustering an Army— Houston's Plans for the 
Campaign— Opposition to Overcome— A Dark Future for Texas — Persecution — 
The 2d of March, 1836, 64 

SECTION SEVENTH. 

THE GUNBRAL. 

The Declaration of Independence— The Brave Men in the Alamo— A Letter from 
Col. Travis— Houston in the Convention — The Fall of the Alamo — Houston's Policy 
—The Last Gun from the Alamo— The Massacre of the Alamo— Mrs. Dickinson's 
Story— Panic in Texas— The March— A Lustre to the Setting Sun— Houston's 
Humanity— Down the Colorado— Houston's Army— The Slaughter of Goliad— 
Preparing to Meet the Enemy— The Camp on the Brazos— Marching to San Jacinto 
—The Only Hope of Texas— Santa Anna Advancing— The Cowardice of the 
Government— The Two Field-Pieces— Not a Tent in the Army— The Time to Fight 
—Not a Moment to be Lost— An Hour of Peril—" Remember the Alamo "—The 
March of Houston's Army— Their Arrival at San Jacinto— Santa Anna's Bugles— 
The Two Armies Meet— The Evening Before the Battle— Truth and its Power— The 
Camp of the Mexicans, 8T 

SECTION EIGHTH. 

• THEHEROOPSANJACINTO. 

The Night Before the Battle— The Morning of San Jacinto — A Council of War- 
Houston Brings on the Battle— The Slaughter — The Charge— The Death Struggle 
—The Fate of the Five Hundred— Deaf Smith— Tlie Day of Vengeance— The 
Flight of Santa Anna— The Return from the Field— The Spoils of Victory— The 
Sublimity of the Victory— The Dominion of the Anglo-Saxons— Why Americans 
Went to Texas— Spain Fades from her Ancient Dominion— The Despotism of 
Mexico— A Justification of Texas— Time's Noblest Offspring, 122 

SECTION NINTH. 

THE VICTOR AND THE CAPTIVE. 

The Morning After the Victory— Santa Anna Houston's Prisoner— Houston Receives 
Him — The Mortified Mexican Dictator — Santa Anna Meets Houston- Cross Exa- 
mination of Santa Anna— The San Jacinto Corn- Americans can Never be Con- 
quered—Santa Anna to be Shot— Houston's Magnanimity to Him— Santa Anna 
and Houston- Houston's Treatment of bis Prisoners— Orders to Santa Anna — 



CONTENTS. iX 

The Fugitive Government— Rusk, the Patriot Soldier— Conditions of Santa Anna's 
Release— Scenes After San Jacinto — Houston's Noble Conduct— The General 
Parting with the Army— Address to the Soldiers— Houston's Reception at New 
Orleans — His Return to His Home— Santa Anna to be Executed— Houston's Pro- 
test — Bad Faith with Santa Anna — Injustice to a Prisoner — Santa Anna'a 
Remonstrance— A Bitter Sarcasm— The New Commander-in-Chief, . . , 143 

SECTION TENTH. 

THE PRESIDENT. 

Election of the First President by Acclamation — The First Texan Congress — Hous- 
ton's Inaugural Address — The Infant Republic — Houston Returns His Sword — 
First Step of the President — Meeting of Houston and Santa Anna — Jackson's 
Opinion of Houston— Parting of Santa Anna and Houston — Attempts at Annexa- 
tion — "Walker's Advocacy of Texas — Jackson's Last Official Act — Texas Advances — 
Houston's Treatment of the Indians — Disbanding the Army — An Army of Adven- 
turers Disperse— Houston's Steadying Hand — Prosperity of Texas— Law-Abiding 
Men— Houston's First Term Ends— Valedictory Address— Houston's Blessing on 
His Republic, 178 

SECTION ELEVENTH. 

THE LEGISLATOR. 

The New President— Ruinous Policy of Lamar— The Santa Fe Expedition— Lamar 
Administration — Extermination of the Indians — Lamar's Statesmanship — Houston 
Saves the Young Republic — A Crisis Nobly Met, 196 

SECTION TWELFTH. 

AGAIN PRESIDENT. 

Houston's Second Term— Difficulties to Overcome — ^Dark Prospects for Texas— Texas 
again Invaded — Texas prepares for another Struggle — Threats against Houston — 
A Veto against Dictatorial Power— A Letter to Santa Anna— Santa Anna's Political 
Character — Anglo-Saxons, and Mexicans— History of the Mexican Dictator — 
Defence of Texas— The Truth told to a Mexican— History of Santa Anna's Con- 
duct — The Victor to his Captive— Contrast between Mexican and American 
Humanity— The Truth about Texas— Slavery in Mexico— Texas will Conquer 
Peace— Houston's Second Term— Appeal to all Friendly Powers— Civilized Nations 
Invoked— The History of the Struggle with Mexico written by Houston— The Fair 
Defiance of Texas to Mexico— Appeal to Humanity against Butchery, . . . 204 

SECTION THIRTEENTH. 

ANNEXATIO N— F RENCH, BRITISH, AND AMERICAN CABINETS. 

Eflfect of Houston's Appeal in London, Paris, and Washington— Anxiety and 
Intrigues of European Powers about Texas— Texas spurned from our Embraces 



X CONTENTS. 

Fttga 
— Annexation Postponed — Subtle and Successful Policy of Houston — Prospect of 

losing Texas — Texas relies upon Herself — Should Texas be Annexed ? — Policy of 
Annexation — Texas lost to America — Attempts at Annexation — Solicitude for 
Texas — Texas Independent — Houston's Diplomacy — The Future for Texas — Poli- 
tical Prophecies— Motives for Annexation— Political Calculation — A Look into the 
Future — Far-Sighted Statesmanship, 181 

SECTION FOURTEENTH. 

RETIREMEN T — H OUSTON'S CHARACTER. 

Why he favored Annexation— Retirement to Private Life— Last Letter of Instruc- 
tions—Negotiations—True Policy of the United States— Texas in the Union — 
A Hearty Greeting to Her— Houston's Presidency— Texas represented at Washing- 
ton—Houston's Private Character— The Reformer and the Reformed— The 
Wounds of the Patriot, 251 



SECTION FIFTEENTH. 

HOUSTON IN THE NATIONAL SENATE. 

His Nationality— Sectionalism in 1850- How Low the Country had Fallen — Hew 
Pierce was Elected— His Treachery to Party, Friends, and Country— His Unpo- 
pular Administration— America Denationalized— Pierce violates the Compromise 
Measures— Houston on the Nebraska Bill— Unnecessary Agitation— Fanaticism 
Rebuked— The Facts of the Missouri Compromise— Effects of its Repeal upon the 
South— Integrity of the Compromise— The Measure Uncalled For— Views of Presi- 
dent Polk— Effects of Repeal upon the Vt'hole Country— Houston swerves not from 
Duty— Opinion of General Cass— Jacob and Esau— Constitutionality of the Com- 
promise-Henry Clay— Agitation of 1850— Position of the Northern Democracy- 
Vindication of the Indians— Their Social Condition— Shameful Robbery of the Red 
Men— Duty of Congress towards them— The Pacificators of 1S50— Remonstrances 
against the Nebraska Bill— Houston on the Clergymen's Petition— Ministers of 
the Gospel not to be Disfranchised— Propriety of the Memorial— Relation of Minis- 
ters to Politics— The South and the Compromise— Reply to Mr. Douglass— The 
Memorial Misapprehended— The Principles of Self-Government— Effects of Hous- 
ton's Speech — Senator Benton Eulogizes Houston, 



SECTION SIXTEENTH. 

HOUSTON'S STATESMANSHIP, 

Elements of Statesmanship- Firmness of Political Purpose— Public Detraction- 
Heroism of Mind— Jackson's Feelings towards Houston— Jackson's Opinion of 
Houston— Houston's American Character— The Magic Power of Statesmanship- 
Texas in her Prostration— Houston a Primitive Man— God in History— The Sacred 
Form of Justice ^q^ 



CONTENTS. XI 

SECTION SEVENTEENTH. **^ 

HOUSTON AND THE INDIANS. 

Wrongs to the Indians— Growing Sympathy for the Red Man — The Reformer of the 
Indians — Houston's View of the Indians — Shall the Indians be Exterminated? — 
No Societies for the Indians — Houston's Boyhood— Justice to the Red Men, . . 817 

SECTION EIGHTEENTH. 

HOUSTON AND FOREIGN EMIGRATION. 

Houston Questioned in the Senate — His Opinion of Foreigners — The Texas Senator 
is Cross-Questioned— Jealousy of Him, 825 

SECTION NINETEENTH. 

THE ANNEXATION OP TEXAS. 

First Attempts for Annexation— War with Mexico— Debates on the Annexation — 
Mexican Tribute tp Anglo-Americans — A Picture of Texas — Its Resources — Texas 
the Road to the Pacific — Girded by Two Oceans — Causes for Congratulation — 
Universal Blessings— Benton's Opinion of Texas and its Public Men— How She 
won her Liberty— The Truth of that Hard Struggle— What the World thought of 
it and its Heroic Leader — What History must say of it, 830 

SECTION TWENTIETH. 

THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE OF TEXAS. 

A Survey of the Condition of Texas— Her Resources in 1S50— The Probable Destiny 
of that State, . . , . S4T 

SECTION TWENTY-FIRST. 

HOUSTON'S EDUCATION AND ELOQUENCE. 

His Intellectual Life — Characteristics of his Speeches — Speaking right on — An 
Eflfective Orator — Non-intervention in Foreign Affairs — Opinion of Kossuth — 
Meeting of Kossuth and Houston — Disunion Rebuked — The Great Compromise 
Measures of 1850 — Satire on Demagogism — Final Appeal in Favor of the 
Indians — Our Injustice to the Red Men — How we have treated the Indians — They 
can be Civilized— They Shall, 861 

SECTION TWENTY-SECOND. 

HOUSTON AT HOME . 

Houston at Home— His Union with the Christian Church— His Family— His Wife 
and Children— His History, and the Moral of his Example— His Futuft and Ours. 88T 



LIFE OF SAM HOUSTON 



SECTIOlSr FIRST. 

A REPUBLIC IN THE FORESTS. 
I. 

There are moments in our lives on which fortune suspends 
our future history ; and when we meet the crisis like men, she 
takes care of the future for us. Once past the hour of trial, 
there are no more hardships to undergo, no more dangers to 
encounter. The gates, which guard the way to glory, are swung 
wide open to the advancing hero, and he treads the path of light 
and triumph, as the Roman conqueror marched up to the temple 
of Jupiter, through the streets of the Eternal City. 

ii. 

So, too, there are days in the lives of Nations, when fortune 
suspends the enduring glory of a people upon a single hour — 
when they are called to decide what their future history shall 
be — whether their banners shall float over new empires, extend- 



14 T R I A L D A y S TO NATIONS. 

ing their liberty, laws, and civilization over oppressed and 
benighted millions, crushing old structures of despotism, breaking 
the arm of the tyrant, and melting away the rotten fabrics of 
hoary superstitions, to emancipate whole peoples — or, whether 
the wheels of their national greatness shall stand still, and the 
solemn prolamation go forth, that they have reached the fur- 
thest limits of their civilization — that the race of their daring 
young men is suddenly arrested — that there shall be no new field 
for untrodden adventure and lofty achievement — that the world, 
and even despotism itself, may roll its wheels of conquest up to 
their frontier borders, and enlarge the empire of tyranny and 
superstition at its will, for thty have done thdr work. They have 
extended the bright circle of their freedom and power, till they 
can extend it no longer. Xo bold woodsman may pass their 
limits, and plunge off into the wilds, to cut out for himself and 
his children a home in God^s own forests, for his government will 
never protect the squatter adventurer, albeit the James River 
settler, and uncompromising Puritan, were nothing more. 

III. 

And if so be that one after another of these forest heroes has 
led the way through the green woods beyond the Sabine, and they 
can, at least, show the traveller the smoke of ten thousand new 
cottages, wreathing up into the clear blue sky of New Estra- 
madura ; and if so be this new race of Puritans, Cavaliers, 
Huguenots and outlaws, all fraternally mingled, have built up 
the beautiful fabric of a new, free commonwealth, for all the 
world to come for a home ; and done it withal, while they were 
protecting their wives and little children from savages, made 
remorseless by Puritan /re-wa^er, and from the enervated, per- 
fidious Mexicans — why, even after these hunter-legislators, these 
squatter-founders of States, have done all the hard work, this 



RUBICON-HOURS. 15 

old Republic, whose wheels can roll no further, will not even 
accept what no other nation ever had to offer — the free gift of a 
mighty domain, declared independent, as New York and Vir- 
ginia were eighty years ago, although the offering be made 
without money and without price 

lY. 

Yes, these trial days come to nations, as they come to men. 
One of those Rubicon-hours came on the cold bleak Rock of 
Plymouth, where a little band of liberty-loving men landed, 
under the cover of a keen northern blast, to begin the great 
business for which Anglo-Saxons crossed the Atlantic, of found- 
ing free commmonwealths. Virginia, too, had her hour, and 
her cavaliers went through Indian-haunted woods, as Marshal 
Ney's cavalry charged through the Black Forest. 

At last, after much debate, and more stupid misconception, 
the New Republic came, and laid on our Federal Altars her 
young shield. It was riddled with rifle bullets, and battered* 
by the tranchant strokes of the tomahawk. You need not have 
looked very close to have seen, too, the ghostly image of 
Mexican treachery, filling up the interstices. What an offering 
was this ! A young hero-people, a new Rome, coming out of 
the forests, walking in light, and clothed in strength, — 
advancing in manhness up to our altars. 



When the future historian shall tell his readers that the 
Young Republic was driven away from our capitol, and her 
shield hurled back in her face— they will not beUeve it. That 
the Representatives of America debated, hesitated, laughed 
Texas to scorn — will, to the next generation, seem a malignant 



16 TEXAS IN THE L' N 1 U N . 

invention of the historian. Bat it was so — and the last resource 
of Republicanism was resorted to. The Texan banner was 
flung to the breeze, and the people of this country were asked 
to settle the question. And over the hills of New England, 
the rallying cry rang, where the young American Eagle first 
unfurled his wings — and far up the valley of the Mississippi, and 
down to the Florida coast — and back came the glorious shout 
of a grateful welcome, and Texas came into the Union. 

YI. 

It was a proud day when her senators took their seats. 
Greatest of the Texans, came that wondrous man, who stood by 
the side of the Young Republic, leaning on his rifle, and rocked 
her infancy in those far-off wilds. Yes, there he stood, on the 
threshold of the Senate Chamber, bringing in his arms — not like 
the triumphant generals of Rome — the fine gold or precious 
stones of distant barbaric princes, lashed to his victorious car — 
but a new and a vast empire. There stood the tall, erect form 
of the care-worn chieftain — his locks turned prematurely grey 
by the hardships of a revolutionary frontier life. His wounds 
were upon him ; he had bled freely in the service of two Repub- 
lics. Let us inquire something of his history. 



^/ 



Houston's ancestry and youth. It 



SECTION SECOND. 

ANCESTRY AND YOUTH. 
I. 

Gen. Sam Houston was born the 2d of March, 1793, in Rock- 
bridge county, Virginia, seven miles east of Lexington, at a 
place known as Timber Ridge Church. The day of his birth he 
was, many years afterwards, to celebrate as the anniversary of 
the birth of a new republic — for it was on his natal day that 
Texas declared herself free and independent. 

II. 

His ancestors, on his father's and mother's side, are traced 
back to the Highlands of Scotland. They are there found 
fighting for "God and liberty," by the side of John Knox. 
During those times of trouble, they emigrated with that 
numerous throng of brave men and women, who were driven 
away from their Highland homes to seek a refuge in the north 
of Ireland. Here they remained till the siege of Derry, in 
which they were engaged, when they emigrated to Pennsyl- 
vania. For more than a century these families seemed to have 
kept together in all their wanderings, and at last a union was 
formed between them, by the marriage of his parents, who had 
been sometime settled in Virginia, when the birth of the subject 
of this book took place. 



18 Houston's MOTHER. 

III. 

His father was a man of moderate fortune ; indeed, he seems 
to have possessed the means only of a comfortable subsistence. 
He was known only for one passion, and this was for a military 
life. He had borne his part in the Revolution, and was succes- 
sively the Inspector of Gen. Bowyer's and Gen. Moore's 
Brigades. The latter post he held till his death, which took 
place in 180t, while he was on a tour of inspection among the 
Alleghany Mountains. He was a man of powerful frame, fine 
bearing, and indomitable courage. These qualities his sou 
inherited, and they were the only legacy he had to leave him. 



IV. 

His mother was an extraordinary woman. She was dis- 
tinguished by a full, rather tall, and matronly form, a fine 
carriage, and an impressive and dignified countenance. She 
was gifted with intellectual and moral qualities, which elevated 
her, in a still more striking manner, above most of her sex. 
Her life shone with purity and benevolence, and yet she was 
nerved with a stern fortitude, which never gave way in the midst 
of the wild scenes that chequered the history of the frontier 
settler. Her beneficence was universal, and her name was 
called with gratitude by the poor and the suffering. Many 
years afterwards, her son returned from his distant exile, to 
weep by her bedside when she came to die. 



V. 

Such were the parents of this man. Those who know his 
history, will not be astonished to find that they were of that 



HARD WORK FOR THE BOY. 19 

noble race, which first subdued the wilderness of Virginia, the 
forests of Tennessee, and the ferocity of their savage inhabitants. >t 
It is a matter of some interest to inquire, what were the means ' 
of education offered to this Yirginia boy. We have learned 
from all quarters, that he never could be got into a schoolhouse, 
till he was eight years old, nor can we learn that he ever 
accomplished much, in a literary way, after he did enter. 
Yirginia, which has never become very famous for her district 
schools, had still less to boast of forty years ago. The State 
made little or no provision, by law, for the education of its 
citizens, and each neighborhood was obliged to take care of its 
rising population. Long before this period, Washington 
College, had been removed to Lexington, and a " Field school " 
was kept in the ruined old edifice, once occupied by that insti- 
tution. This school seems, from all accounts (and we have 
taken some pains to inform ourselves about this matter), to have 
been of doubtful utility. Houston is said to have learned to read 
and write, and to have gained some imperfect ideas of ciphering. 
Late in the fall and the winter, were the only seasons he was 
allowed to improve even the dubious advantages of such a 
school. The rest of the year he was kept to hard work. If he 
worked very well, he was sometimes permitted to run home from 
the fields, to be in time to retain his place in spelling. But it 
is doubtful if he ever went to such a school more than six months 
in all, till the death of his father, which took place when he was 
thirteen years old. This event changed at once the fortunes of 
the family. They had been maintained in comfortable circum- 
stances, chiefly through the exertions of the father, and now 
they were to seek for other reliances. 

VL 

Mrs. Houston was left with the heavy burden of a numerous 



20 EMIGRATION TO THE WEST. 

family. She had six sons and three daughters. But she was 
not a woman to succumb to misfortune, and she immediately 
sold out her homestead, and prepared to cross the Alleghany 
Mountains, and find a new home on the fertile banks of 
the Tennessee River. Those of our readers who live in a 
crowded population, surrounded by all that embellishes civil- 
ized life, may be struck with the heroism of a Virginia 
woman who, fifty years ago, took up her journey through 
those unpeopled regions ; and yet few of them can have any 
adequate conception of the hardships such a heroine had to 
encounter. "We hope the day may come when our young 
authors will stop writing and dreaming about European 
castles, with their crazy knights and lady-loves, and hunt- 
ing through the mummy-haunted halls of the pyramids, and 
set themselves to work to glean the unwritten legends of 
heroism and adventure, which the old men would tell them, who 
are now smoking their pipes around the roof-trees of Kentucky 
and Tennessee — a race which is too rapidly fading away : to 
return no more. 



VII. 

There is room for the imagination to play around the toilsome 
path of this widow and her children, as she pushed her adven- 
turous way to her forest home. Some facts, too, of wild interest, 
are in our possession — but we shall hurry on with our story, for, 
if we mistake not, our readers will find romance enough in this 
history, to satisfy the wildest fancy. Fired still with the same 
heroic spirit which first led them to try the woods, our daring 
little party stopped not till they reached the limits of the 
emigration of those days. They halted eight miles from the 
Tennessee River, which was then the boundary between white 
men and the Cherokee Indians. 



Houston's editcation. 21 

YIII. 

Young Houston was now set to work with the rest of the 
family, in breaking up the virgin soil, and providing the means 
of subsistence. There seems to have been very little fancy in 
his occupations, for some time; he became better acquainted than 
ever with what is called hard work, — a term which has a similar 
signification in all languages and countries. 

There was an Academy established in that part of East Ten- 
nessee, about this time, and he went to it for a while, just after 
Hon. Mr. Jarnagin, who long represented his State in the 
United States Senate, had left it. He had got possession, in 
some way, of two or three books, which had a great power over 
his imagination. No boy ever reads well, till he feels a thirst 
for intelligence: and no surer indication is needed that this 
period has come, than to see the mind directed towards those 
gigantic heroes who rise like spectres from the ruins of Greece 
and Rome, towering high and clear above the darkness and 
gloom of the Middle Ages. He had, among other works. Pope's 
Iliad, which he read so constantly, we have been assured on the 
most reliable authority, he could repeat it almost entire from 
beginning to end. His imagination was now fully awakened, 
and his emulation began to be stirred. Reading translations 
from Latin and Greek, soon kindled his desire to study those 
primal languages, and so decided did this propensity become, 
that on being refused, when he asked the master's permission, 
he turned on his heel, and declared solemnly that he would 
never recite another lesson of any other kind while he lived — 
and from what we have been able to learn of his history, we 
think it very probable that he kept his word! But he had 
gathered more from the classic world through Pope's Iliad, than 
many a ghostly book-worm, who has read Euripides or JEschylus 
among the solemn ruins of the Portico itself. He had caught 



22 HOUSTON BECOMES AN INDIAN. 

the " wonted fire" that still *' lives in the ashes " of their heroes, 
and his future life was to furnish the materials of an epic more 
strange than many a man's, whose name has become immortal. 



IX. 

His elder brothers seem to have crossed his wishes occasion- 
ally, and by a sort of fraternal tyranny quite common, exercised 
over him some severe restraints. At last they compelled him to 
go into a merchant's store, and stand behind the counter. This 
kind of life he had little relish for, and he suddenly disappeared. 
A great search was made for him, but he was nowhere to be 
found for several weeks. At last intelligence reached the 
family, that Sam had crossed the Tennessee river, and gone to 
live among the Indians, where, from all accounts, he seemed to 
be living much more to his liking. They found him, and began 
to question him on his motives for this novel proceeding. Sam 
was now, although so very young, nearly six feet high, and 
standing straight as an Indian, coolly replied that '' he preferred 
measuring deer tracks, to tape — that he liked the wild liberty 
of the Red men, better than the tyranny of his own brothers, 
and if he could not study Latin in the Academy, he could, at 
least, read a translation from the Greek in the woods, and read 
it in peace. So they could go home as soon as they liked." 



His family, however, thinking this a freak from which he 
would soon recover when he got tired of the Indians, gave 
themselves no great uneasiness about him. But week after 
week passed away, and Sam did not make his appearance. At 
last his clothes were worn out, and he returned to be refitted. 



RUNNING WILD AMONG THE INDIANS. 23 

He was kindly received by Iiis mother, and, for awhile, his 
brothers treated him with due propriety. But the first act of 
tyranny they showed, drove him to the woods again, where he 
passed entire months with his Indian mates, chasing the deer 
through the forest with a fleetness little short of their own — 
engaging in all those gay sports of the happy Indian boys, and 
wandering along the banks of the streams by the side of some 
Indian maiden, sheltered by the deep woods, conversing in that 
universal language which finds its sure way to the heart. From 
a strange source we have learned much of his Indian history, 
during these three or four years, and, in the absence of facts, it 
would be no difficult matter to fancy what must have been his 
occupations. It was the moulding period of life, when the 
heart, just charmed into the fevered hopes and dreams of youth, 
looks wistfully around on all things for light and beauty — 
" when every idea of gratification fires the blood and flashes on 
the fancy — when the heart is vacant to every fresh form of 
delight, and has no rival engagements to withdraw it from the 
importunities of a new desire." The poets of Europe, in fancy- 
ing such scenes, have borrowed their sweetest images from the 
wild idolatry of the Indian maiden. Houston has since seen 
nearly all there is in life to live for, and yet he has been heard 
to say that, as he looks back over the waste of life, there's 
much that is sweet to remember in this sojourn he made 
among the untutored children of the forest. 

XL 

And yet, this running wild among the Indians, sleeping on 
the ground, chasing wild game, living in the forests, and read- 
ing Homer's Iliad withal, seemed a pretty strange busi- 
ness, and people used to say that Sam Houston would either be 
a great Indian chief, or die in a mad-house, or be governor of 



24 HOUSTON STUDIES THE INDIANS. 

the State — for it was very certain that some dreadful thing 
would overtake him ! 

Well, it may have been doubtful, and it was for a long time, 
what all this would end in. But the mystery has cleared away, 
somewhat, since the battle of San Jacinto. Certain it is that 
his early life among the Indians was, as the event proved, a 
necessary portion of that wonderful training that fitted him for 
his strange destiny. There he was initiated into the profound 
mysteries of the red man's character, and a taste was formed 
for forest life, which made him, many years after, abandon once 
more the habitations of civilized men, with their coldness, their 
treachery, and their vices, and pass years among the children 
of the Great Spirit, till he finally led the way to the achievement 
of the independence of a great domain, and the consolidation 
of a powerful Commonwealth. 

XII. 

Guided by a wisdom all His own, the Ruler of Nations led 
him by an unknown path, and his wild history reminds us of the 
story of Romulus, who was nurtured by the beasts of the 
forest, till he planted the foundations of a mighty Empire. With 
the history of the Father of Rome, the pens of poets have 
played — and it would seem, after all, to have been but a pro- 
phesy in fable, whose fulfilment the world has waited for till 
our days. Certain it is, too, that no man whose history we 
know, has lived on this continent, who has had so complete a 
knowledge of the Indian character — none who could sway so 
povv^erful a control over the savage mind. During his entire 
administration of the government of Texas, not an Indian tribe 
violated a treaty with the Republic ; and it is nearly as safe to 
say, that during the administration of others, not a tribe was 
known to make or regard one. 



INDIAN WARRIORS IN WASHINGTON. 25 

XIII. 

During the latter part of June, 1846, Gen. Morehead arrived 
at Washington with forty wild Indians from Texas, belonging to 
more than a dozen tribes. We saw their meecing with Gen. Hous- 
ton. One and all ran to him and clasped him in their brawny arms, 
and hugged him like bears, to their naked breasts, and called 
him Father ; beneath the copper skin and thick paint the blood 
rushed, and their faces changed, and the lip of many a warrior 
trembled, although the India^i may not weep. These wild men 
knew him, and revered -^iini as one who was too directly de- 
scended from the Gre^t Spirit to be approached v/ith familiarity, 
and yet they lo-t-^id him so well they could not help it. These 
were the mcii "he had been," in the fine language of Acqui- 
quask, ^>nose words we quote, "too subtle for, on the war path 
— too powerful in battle, too magnanimous in victory, too wise 
in council, and too true in faith." They had flung away their 
arms in Texas, and with the Comanche chief who headed their 
file, they had come to Washington to see their Father. I said 
these iron warriors shed no tears, when they met their old friend 
— but white men who stood by, will tell us what they did. We 
were there, and we have witnessed few scenes in which mingled 
more of what is called the moral sublime. In the gigantic form 
of Houston, on whose ample brow the beneficent love of a father 
was struggling with the sternness of the patriarch warrior, we 
saw civilization awing the savage at his feet. We needed no 
interpreter to tell us that'tliis impressive supremacy was gained 
in the forest. 

xiy. 

But we have lost the thread of our story. This wild life 
among the Indians lasted till his eighteenth year. He had, 
during i)is visits once or twice a year to his family, to be refitted 



26 HOUSTON A SCHOOL TEACHER. 

in his dress, purchased many little articles of taste or utility to 
use among the Indians. In this manner he had incurred a debt 
which he was bound in honor to pay. To meet this engagement, 
he had no other resource left but to abandon his '' dusky com- 
panions," and teach the children of pale-faces. As may natu- 
rally be supposed, it was no easy matter for him to get a school, 
and on the first start, the enterprise moved very slowly. 
But as the idea of abandoning anything on which he had once 
fixed his purpose, was no part of his character, he persevered, 
and in a short time he had more sch-^lars to turn away, than he 
had at first to begin with. He was al^o paid what was con- 
sidered an exorbitant price. Formerly, no master had hinted 
above $6 per annum. Houston, who probably t'l^ought that one 
who had been graduated at an Indian university, ougljt to hold 
his lore at a dearer rate, raised the price to $8 — one-third to be 
paid in corn, delivered at the mill, at 331 cents per bushel — oue- 
third in cash, and one-third in domestic cotton cloth, of varie- 
gated colors, in which our Indian professor was dressed. He 
also wore his hair behind, in a snug queue, and is said to have 
been very much in love with it, probably from an idea that it 
added somewhat to the adornment of his person — in which, too, 
he was probably mistaken. 

XV. 

When he had made money enough, to pay his debts, he shut 
up his school, and went back to his old master, to study. He 
put Euclid into his hands. He carried that ugly, unromantic 
book back and forth to and from the school a few days, without 
trying to solve even so much as the first problem, and then 
came to the very sensible conclusion, that he would never try 
to be a scholar ! This was in 1813. But fortunately an event 
now took place which was to decide his fate. 



HOUSTON JOINS THE U. S. ARMY. 2t 

XYI. 

The bugle had pounded, and for the second time, America was 
summoned to measure her strength with the Mistress of the 
Seas. A recruiting party of the United States Army came to 
Mary ville, with music, a banner, and some well-dressed sergeants. 
Of course, young Houston enlisted — anybody could have 
guessed as much. His friends said he was ruined — that he must 
by no means join the army as a common soldier. He then made 
his first speech, as far as we can learn: — " And what have your 
craven souls to say about the ranks ? — Go to, with your stuff ; 1 
would much sooner honor the ranks, than disgrace an appoint- 
ment. You don't know me now, but you shall hear of me." 

His old friends and acquaintances, considering him hopelessly 
disgraced, cut his acquaintance at once. His mother gave her 
consent as she stood in the door of her cottage, and handed her 
boy the musket: — "There, my son, take this musket," she said, 
" and never disgrace it: for remember, I had rather all my sons 
should fill one honorable grave, than that one of them should 
turn his back to save his life. Go, and remember, too, that 
while the door of my cottage is open to brave men, it* is eternally 
shut against cowards." 

XYII. 

He marched off. He was soon promoted to a sergeant. In 
a short time he became the best drill in the regiment; — soon 
after he was marched to Fort Hampton, at the head of the 
Musele Shoals, in Alabama, where he was promoted to an 
ensign. Returned to Knoxville — assisted in drilling and organ- 
izing the Eastern Battalion of the 39th Regiment of Infantry; 
and from thence marched to the Ten Islands, where he 
remained encamped for some time. The line of march was then 



28 TO-HO-PE-KA. 

taken up for Fort Williams. The Regiment descended the 
Coosa, and marched for To-ho-pe-ka, or the Horse-Shoe, 
where some events took place, deserving a more minute 
relation. 



THESOLDIKR. 29 



SECTION THIRD 



THE SOLDIER. 



Most of our readers are doubtless familiar with the history of 
the great battle of the Horse-Shoe. An undecisive struggle 
had for a long time been carried on with the Creek Indians, who 
had avoided the hazards of open warfare, hoping at last, by 
forest ambuscades, and stealthy eruptions, to weary out a foe 
they did not dare to meet in a general engagement. But this 
kind of warfare was soon to be brought to an end. They had a 
foe to contend with, who out-matched them in subtlety, and all 
the daring impetuosity of his nature was bent upon their de- 
struction. 

II. 

General Jackson's army, encamped at Fort Williams, now 
amounted to more than two thousand men, and his spies were 
scattered far and wide through the forests. Retreating from 
village to village and point to point, the enemy had gathered 
all their effective force on a bend of the Tallapoosa, where a 
thousand warriors — the chivalry of the Creek Nation — following 
the guidings of their Prophets, had taken their last stand, 
resolved to risk all, upon a single struggle. This bend, which 
they called To-ho-pe-ka or the Horse-Shoe, is accurately 'de- 
scribed by its name. It is a peninsula of about one hundred 



30 HOUSTON' UNDER GEN. JACKSON. 

acres of land, opening on the north, where it was protected by a 
massive breastwork — reaching down to the river on both sides — 
composed of three tiers of heavy pine logs, with two rows of 
skillfully arranged port-holes. 



III. 

On the morning of the 2tth of March, Gen. Jackson reached 
the Horse-Shoe, and immediately prepared for action. In a 
few hours, by a masterly arrangement of his forces, he had com- 
pletely invested the Peninsula. Gen. Coffee had, early in the 
morning, crossed the river at a ford two miles below, with a 
body of mounted men, and nearly all the force of friendly 
Indians, serving under Gen. Jackson ; and at ten o'clock he had 
drawn up his lines on the south of the bend, cutting off all 
escape from three sides of the Peninsula. In the meantime, the 
General had advanced towards the north side of the bend, with 
the main army, and drawing up his lines, he ordered the two 
pieces of artillery to play upon the Indian breastworks. The 
first gun was fired at about half-past ten o'clock, and a brisk 
fire maintained till nearly one, apparently without much effect, 
— the small cannon shot playing almost harmlessly against mas- 
sive timbers. Iso opportunity had yet been given to the main 
army to show their valor ; but a rattle of musketry mingling 
with the sharp crack of a hundred rifles, was heard, and a heavy 
column of smoke came rolling up from the southern part of the 
Peninsula. 

lY. 

The Cherokees, under General Coffee, had discovered a line 
of canoes, half concealed by the bushes, on the opposite shore, 
and, in a few minutes, they swam the stream, and brought 
them across. Richard Brown, their gallant chief, leaped into a 



■'^£^22j^ ^^^.,., 



^ ^ 



TO HO-PE-K 
T//£ //0/iS£- 






r 




A Brandies' Rog't. 

B. 39th Regiment. 

C. Militia. 

DD. Russell's Spies.. 
EE. Coffee's command. 
F & G. Friendly Indian": 



II Women and children. 
JJ. Creek Warriors 
KK. Breast Work. 
L. Cabins. 
M. Covered Ravine. 



THE CREEE CAMPAIGN. 31 

canoe, followed by his brave Cherokees, and with Captain Rus- 
sell's companies of spies, crossed the river. They first set fire 
to the cluster of wigwams near the shore, and, as the smoke rose 
over them, advanced upon the rear of a thousand warriors who 
were sheltered from the artillery on the north. 



When General Jackson's troops heard the firing and saw the 
smoke, they knew that their companies had crossed the river, 
and they were impatient to storm the breastworks. But the 
General held them steady in their lines, till he had sent an inter- 
preter to remove all the women and children in the Peninsula, 
amounting to several hundreds, to a safe place beyond the river. 
The moment this was effected, he gave an order to storm the 
breastworks. The order was received with a shout, and the 
39th Regiment, under Colonel Williams, and General Doherty's 
brigade of East Tennesseans, rushed up with loud cries to the 
onset, where a short but bloody struggle followed at the 
port-holes, bayonet to bayonet, and muzzle to muzzle. Major 
Montgomery was the first man to spring upon the breastworks, 
but a ball in the head hurled him back. About the same 
instant, on the extreme right of the 31st Regiment, Ensign 
Houston scaled the breastworks, calling to his brave fellows to 
follow him as he leaped down among the Indians — cutting his 
way. 

YI. 

While he was scaling the works, or soon after he reached the 
ground, a barbed arrow struck deep into his thigh. He kept his 
ground for a moment, till his lieutenant and men were by 
his side, and the warriors had begun to recoil under their des- 
perate onset. He then called to his lieutenant to extract the 



32 ONE THOUSAND CREEK WARRIORS. 

arrow, after he had tried in vaiu to do it himself. The ofiBcer 
made two unsuccessful attempts, and failed. " Try again," said 
Houston — the sword with which he was still keeping command 
raised over his head — '' and, if you fail this time, I will smite 
you to the earth." With a desperate effort he drew forth 
the arrow, tearing the flesh as it came. A stream of blood 
rushed from the place, and Houston crossed the breast- 
works to have his wounds dressed. The surgeon bound it 
up and staunched the blood. Gen. Jackson, who came up to 
see who had been wounded, recognizing his young ensign, order- 
ed him firmly not to return. Under any other circumstances, 
Houston would have obeyed any order from the brave man who 
stood over him, but now he begged the general to allow him to 
return to his men. The general ordered him most peremptorily 
not to cross the outworks again. But, Houston was deter- 
mined to die in that battle, or v/in the fame of a hero. 
He remembered how the finger of scorn had been pointed 
at him as he fell into the ranks of the recruiting party 
that marched through the village ; and rushing once more 
to the breastworks, he was in a few seconds at the head 
of his men. 

YII. 

The action had now become general, and more than two 
thousand men were struggling hand to hand. Arrows, and 
spears, and balls were flying ; swords and tomahawks were 
gleaming in the sun ; and the whole Peninsula rang with 
the yell of the savage, and the groans of the dying. 

The thousand warriors who had gathered there that day, were 
chosen men. A brother of Tecumseh had, some months before, 
visited all the villages of the Creek Nation, and stirred 
up their passions for blood and revenge, proclaiming to 
their prophets that the voice of the Great Spirit had called 



THE INDIAN PROPHETS. 33 

him to go on the mission, and that the flower of their people 
should assemble to give battle to the pale faces, and the day 
would be crowned with the final destruction of their foes. 
There was in this strange mission, enough of mystery to inflame 
all the superstition and malignity of the nation ; and, fol- 
lowing their prophets, they had at last met the pale faces 
on the day that would give victory to their people. The 
day of the battle had come, and warriors by hundreds were 
falling ; but they were firm in the belief of their pro- 
phets, who still proclaimed that they should win the day. The 
Great Spirit, they said, would sweep their enemies away with a 
storm of wrath, and his signal should be a cloud from Heaven. 
And it is proper to add, that vrhen the struggle was decided, 
and the commander-in-chief was issuing an order to stop 
the carnage, and had sent an interpreter to tell the foe their 
lives should be spared if they would surrender, a cloud 
suddenly overspread the sky. The superstitious warriors, 
believing it the signal of their promised redemption, fired 
upon the interpreter after his message was delivered, and 
ao'ain the action besran. 



YIII. 

But the eagerly- watched signal ended in a quiet April show- 
er, and no deliverance came to the brave, but devoted peo- 
ple. Not a warrior offered to surrender, even while the 
sword was at his breast. Hundreds had already fallen, and 
were weltering in their gore — multitudes of others had been 
shot or drowned, in attempting to swim the river — the ground 
of the peninsula was covered only with the dead and dying, 
and the battle was supposed to be over. To the last moment, 
the old prophets stood firm, and gazed up towards the sky ; 
around them warriors clustered, feeling to the very last moment 

2* 



34 THE RUIN OF THE CREEK NATION. 

that relief would come. Hope expired only with the expiring 
groan of the last prophet, and the warrior who gasped at 
his side. 

IX. 

But the victory was still incomplete — the work of slaughter 
was not yet done. A large party of Indians had secreted them- 
selves in a part of the breastworks, constructed over a ravine in 
the form of the roof of a house, with narrow port-holes, from 
which a murderous fire could be kept up, whenever the assail- 
ants should show themselves. Here the last remnant of the 
Creek warriors of the Peninsula was gathered, and, as the artil- 
lery could not be brought to bear upon the place, they could be 
dislodged only by a bold charge, which would probably cost the 
lives of the brave men who made it. 



X. 

An offer of life, if they would surrender, had been rejected 
with scorn by these brave, desperate savages, which sealed their 
fate. Gen. Jackson now called for a body of men to make the 
charge. As there was no order given, tl^e lines stood still, 
and not an officer volunteered to lead the forlorn-hope. Sup- 
posing some captain would lead forward his company, Houston 
would wait no longer. Calling on his platoon to follow 
him, he dashed down the precipitous descent, towards the 
covered ravine. But, his men hesitated. With a desperation 
which belongs only to such occasions, he seized a musket from 
one of his men, and, leading the way, ordered the rest to follow 
him. There was but one way of attack that could prevail — it 
was to charge through the port-holes, although they were brist- 
ling with rifles and arrows, and it had to be done by a 
rapid, simultaneous plunge. As he was stopping to rally his 



THE WOUNDED SOLDIER. 35 

men, and had levelled his musket, within five yards of the port- 
holes, he received two rifle-balls in his right shoulder, and his 
arm fell shattered to his side. Totally disabled, he turned and 
called once more to his men, and implored them to make the 
charge. But they did not advance. Houston stood in his 
blood till he saw it would do no good to stand any longer, and 
then went beyond the range of the bullets, and sank down 
exhausted to the earth. The Indians were at last dislodged 
from the covered ravine, by its being set on fire. The sun was 
going down, and it set over the ruin of the Creek Nation. 
Where, but a few hours before, a thousand brave ravages had 
scowled on death and their assailants, there wo^ nothing to be 
seen but volumes of dense smoke, rising hfvivily over the corpses 
of painted warriors, and the burn)-'»g ruins of their forti- 
fications. 

XL 

After the perils of t-^is hard-fought engagement, in which he 
had. displayed a heroism that excited the admiration of the entire 
army, and rece'^ed wounds which are this day unhealed, he was 
taken from trie field of the dead and wounded, and committed to 
the hanf^s of the surgeon. One ball was extracted, but no 
attempt was made to extract the other, for the surgeon said it 
was unnecessary to torture him, since he could not survive till 
the next morning. He spent the night as soldiers do, who war 
in the wilderness, and carry provisions in their knapsacks for a 
week's march. Comforts were out of the question for any ; but 
Houston received less attention than the others, for everybody 
looked on him as a dying man, and what could be done for any, they 
felt should be done for those who were likely to live. It was 
the darkest night of his life, and it closed in upon the most bril- 
liant day he had yet seen. We can fancy to ourselves what must 
have been the feelings of the young soldier, as he lay on the 



36 HOUSTON O \ A LITTER, 

damp earth, through the hours of that dreary night, racked 
with the keen torture of his many wounds, and deserted in what 
he supposed to be his dying hour. 



XII. 

But God, whose mysterious Providence guides its chosen 
instruments by a way they know not, had yet other work for 
him to do — he was yet to pass through many scenes of excite- 
ment and heroism; and, at last, to lead a brave band of pioneers 
triumphantlij through all their struggles and sufferings to the 
peaceful enjoyment of a free commonwealth. The military 
prowess and heroism Houston displayed throughout that bloody 
day, secured for him the vesting regard of Gen. Jackson, whose 
sympathies followed him through all his fortunes. More than 
thirty years after, v.-hen the ven^^rable old chief was trembling 
on the verge of life, looking out v.lth undimmed cheerfulness 
from the dark inn of mortality upon tn^ summer path of light 
tliat opened before him, he sent for Gen. Houston to liurry to 
his bed-side to see him die. 



xni. 

On the following day, Houston was started on a litter, with 
the other wounded, for Fort Williams, some sixty or seventy 
miles distant. Here he remained, suspended between life and 
death, for a long time, neglected and exposed, the other regular 
officers of the regiment having all been removed to Fort Jack- 
son, or the Hickory Ground. He was taken care of, a part of 
the time, by Gen. Johnson, father of the Post-master General 
of tliat name, and by Col. Cheatham — and by them at last 
brought back to the Ten Islands,' and from thence by Gen. 
Dougherty, who commanded the Brigade from East Tennessee," 



THE S L D I E 11 A T II O }l K . St 

through the Cherokee Nation, to his motlier's house in Blount 
County, where he arrived in the latter part of May, nearly two 
months after the battle of the Horse-Shoe. 

XIY. 

This long journey was made in a litter, borne by horses, 
while he was not only helpless, but suffering the extremest 
agony. His diet was of the coarsest description, and most of 
the time he was not only deprived of medical aid, but even of 
those simple remedies which would, at least, have alleviated his 
sufferings. His toilsome way was through the forests, where he 
was obliged to encamp out, and often without shelter. No one 
around him had any expectation he would ever recover. At 
last, when he reached the house of his mother, he was so worn 
to a skeleton, that she declared she never would have known 
him to be her son but for his eyes, which still retained something 
of their wonted expression. 

XY. 

Under the hospitable roof of that cottage, whose " door was 
always open to brave men," he languished a short time, and 
when he had recovered a little strength went to Maryville 
to be near medical aid. Here his health gradually declined, 
and in quest of a more skillful surgeon, he was removed 
to Knoxville, sixteen miles to the eastward. The physician to 
whom he applied, found him in so low a state that he was 
unwilling to take charge of him, for he declared that he could 
live only a few days. But at the end of this period, finding he 
had not only survived, but begun to improve a little, the doctor 
offered his services, and Houston was slowly recovering. 

When he had become strong enough to ride a horse, he set 



38 HOCSTDN ON TMK MISSISSIPPI. 

out by short journeys for Washington. He reached the seat of 
Government soon after the burning of the Capitol. In common 
with every true friend of his country, his blood boiled when he 
saw the ruin that heroic people had worked, and he experienced 
one of the keenest pangs of his life, in the thought that his right 
arm should be disabled at such a moment, and while the foe was 
still prowling through the country. Winter was now advancing, 
and with his wounds still festering, he journeyed on to Lexing- 
ton, Virginia, where he remained till early spring. 

Having, as he supposed, sufficiently recovered to be able to 
do his duty as a soldier in some situation, he prepared to cross 
the mountains. When he reached Knoxville, on his way to 
report himself ready for duty, he heard the glorious news of the 
battle of New Orleans. His furlough had been unlimited. 

XYI. 

After peace was proclaimed, he was stationed at the canton- 
ment of his regiment, near Knoxville, and when the army was 
reduced, he was retained in the service as a lieutenant, and 
attached to the 1st Regt. of infantry, and stationed at New 
Orleans. 

In the fall, he had embarked on the Cumberland, in a small 
skiff, in company with two young men, one of whom afterwards 
became distinguished as Gov. White, of Louisiana. He was 
then a beardless boy, just leaving college. They passed down 
the Cumberland, entered the Ohio, and at last found their way 
to the Mississippi, over whose mighty waters they floated 
through that vast solitude, which was then unbroken by the 
noise of civilized life. Our voyager had with him a few of those 
volumes which have been the companions of so many great and 
good men : a Bible, given to him by his mother. Pope's transla- 
tion of the Iliad, the same book he had kept by him during his 



-A W I N T K R (IF SUFFERING. 30 

wild life among the Indians — Shakspere, Akenside, and a few of 
those standard works of fiction, which, like Robinson Crusoe, 
Pilgrim's Progress, and the Vicar of Wakefield, have become a 
part of the history of every man who knows how to read. It is 
not difficult to imagine the effect such works must have pro- 
duced upon the heated imagination of a young American soldier, 
voyaging through those impressive solitudes. 

After many days their skiff turned a bend in the Mississippi, 
above Natchez, and far down the river they saw a vessel coming 
up the stream without sails, sending up a heavy column of 
smoke. Instead of being a vessel on fire, as they at first sup- 
posed, it turned out to be the first steamboat that ever went up 
the Mississippi river. 

At Natchez they exchanged their skiff for the steamboat, and 
in eight days they reached New Orleans, where Houston report- 
ed for duty. 

He now had his wounds operated on once more, and the 
operation nearly cost him his life. The rifle ball, after shatter- 
ing most completely his right arm just below its juncture with 
the shoulder, had passed round and lodged near the shoulder- 
blade. Nothing but an iron constitution had enabled him to 
endure the enormous suffering he had gone through, and the 
operation just performed had well-nigh robbed him of his last 
strength. His lungs were supposed, moreover, to be irreparably 
injured ; but that indomitable resolution which has borne him 
triumphantly through all the struggles of his stormy life, never 
gave way. 

XYII. 

After a winter of extreme suffering, he sailed in April for 
New York, where he passed several weeks, with a slight 
improvement in health. Returning to Tennessee by the way of 
Washington, after visiting his friends, he reported to the Adju- 



40 Houston's vindication. 

tant-General of the Southern Division, at Nashville, and was 
detailed on duty in the Adjutant's ofiSce, and stationed at Nash- 
ville from the 1st of January, 181Y. He was attached to the 
ofi&ce till the following Xovember, when he was detailed on extra 
duty as a sub-Indian agent among the Cherokees, to carry out 
the treaty just ratified with that nation. His feeble health 
rendered it peculiarly hazardous to encounter the exposures of 
such an agency, but Gen. Jackson considered it necessary to the 
pubhc service that he should at least make the attempt, for he 
could procure the services of no one in whom he could repose such 
entire confidence. Accordingly, Lieut. Houston, yielding to the 
importunities of his commander, who, knowing he was unfit for 
public service, offered him a furlough if he should decline the 
agency, entered upon his new duties with ardor, and discharged 
them with marked ability. During that same winter he con- 
ducted a delegation of Indians to Washington. When he 
arrived at the seat of Government, he found that attempts had 
been made to injure him with the Government, for having pre- 
vented African negroes from being smuggled into the Western 
States from Florida, which was then a province of Spain. These 
reports had been circulated by the friends of the smugglers, who 
were then in Congress. 

XYIII. 

He vindicated himself before the President and the Secretary 
of War, and showed that in all he had done, he had only endea- 
vored to secure respect for the laws of the country. He was 
still to show, too, most conclusively, that while he had been 
occupied laboriously in his new and difficult mission, which he 
had, as was confessed on all hands, discharged with singular 
ability, he had been suffering without respite from his painful 
wounds received in tiie service of his countrv. It was the 



JACKSON, Houston's f i; i k n d . 41 

oj^inioQ of General Jackson, and all who understood Houston's 
position and services, at the time, that he was not only .entitled 
to a full and ample exculpation from all blame (which v/as indeed 
accorded him), but had a right to expect that his magnanimous 
sacrifices for the State should have met with a warmer recogni- 
tion. But he considered himself slighted at the time, and he 
resigned his first lieutenancy in the army, — at a period, too, 
when his health rendered it exceedingly doubtfql how he was to 
gain a livelihood. But he acted on the principle he has so often 
illustrated, that no man should be an almoner upon the bounty 
of a State who cannot bring to its service talents and acquisi- 
tions which would procure higher emoluments in private life. 
He returned with the Delegation to the agency on Hi-Wassee, 
and then resigned his commission as sub-agent, and went to 
Nashville to read law. 



4iJ HOUSTON STUDIES LAW 



SECTION FOURTH. 



THE CIVILIAN. 



I. 

Houston was now in his twenty-fifth year. He had played a 
heroic part in the national struggle just past — he had become 
familiar with the hardships the frontier soldier has to encounter 
— he had seen the treachery and the coldness of artificial life — 
and he had passed years among the simple-hearted but stern 
children of the Great Spirit. 

With a mind enriched by experience and observation, and a 
lofty aspiration for enduring fame, he abandoned the life of the 
soldier, to pursue the calmer path of the civilian. In his wan- 
derings in search of health, his pay in the army had been inade- 
quate to his necessities, and he found himself burdened down by 
a load of debt. Before he began the study of the law, he sold 
the last piece of property he possessed, and appropriated the 
last farthing of the avails to the discharge of his debts ; but a 
residuum of several hundred still remained unpaid — the balance, 
however, was soon discharged. 

II. 

He entered the ofi&ce of Hon. James Trimble, who told him 
that eighteen months of hard study would be necessary, before 
he could be admitted to the bar. He began his studies in June, 



ORIGINAL CHARACTERS. 43 

1818. He read a few of the standard works prescribed in 
a course of law studies, and read them thoroughly. He grasped 
the great principles of the science, and they were fixed in his 
mind for ever. There is a class of men who are made up, 
like composite architecture, of the details of beauty stolen from 
primitive orders ; such men constitute the secondary forma- 
tions of society ; but the intellectual world, like the frame of 
nature, reposes upon nobler and more massive strata. 

III. 

Those men who borrow their lights from others, never lead 
the human race through great crises — they who depend on the 
strength they gather from books or men, are never equal to 
lofty achievements. The minds which electrify the world, gene- 
rate their own fire ; such men seldom shine in details — they have 
no time to attend to them, and they never feel the loss of these 
secondary lights. The bold mariner, who ventures at once upon 
the open sea, and regulates his course by a few towering head- 
lands and solitary lights that gleam from afar, can give little 
information to the coaster about the tiny bays that indent the 
shore, or the color of the pebbles that glitter on the beach. 
But he has marked on his chart the dangerous reefs, and the great 
currents of the ocean, and he is at home with his noble vessel 
wherever the sun, the moon, and the stars shine. 

So it is with those who explore the fields of science. Some 
men cultivate such studies only to amass details, to use on 
appropriate occasions, while others enter them only to gather 
general principles which have a universal application ; and, in 
approaching these two classes, we discover as grand a difference 
as we do between one of those islands of the Pacific Seas, newly 
formed by the countless animalculse of the ocean, and the bold 
brow of the everlasting mountain. 



44 HOUSTON IS ADMITTED TO THE BAR. 

We have used these illustrations only to convey more per- 
fectly an idea of Houston's character. His teacher had pre- 
scribed eighteen months' study : in one-third of the time he was 
recommended to apply for license, and he was admitted with 
edat. A few months' study had enabled him to pass a search- 
ing examination with great honor to himself and his new profes- 
sion. He immediately purchased a small library on credit, and 
established himself in Lebanon, thirty miles east of Nashville, 
and began the practice of law. Soon after, he was appointed 
Adjutant-General of the State, with the rank of Colonel. In the 
meantime he followed up his studies, and the practice of his pro- 
fession, with earnestness, and so rapidly did he rise at the bar, 
that he was, in October of the same year, elected District Attor- 
ney of the Davidson District, which made it desirable he should 
take up his residence at Nashville. 

He was obliged to come in collision with all the talent of one 
of the ablest bars of Western America. Every step he trod was 
new to him, but he was almost universally successful in prosecu- 
tions ; and his seniors who rallied him upon his" recent advance- 
ment, and his rawness in the practice, never repeated their 
jokes. They discovered, to their mortification, that neither 
many books, nor much dull plodding could enable them to mea- 
sure weapons with a man so gifted in rare good sense and pene- 
trating genius. 

lY. 

We have taken considerable pains to render ourselves familiar 
with the various steps of Houston's advancement, till he reached 
the highest honors of the State. But we shall be obliged to 
pass rapidly over this portion of his history, in order to leave 
space to speak more minutely of his subsequent achievements. 
The labors of the District Attorney were unceasing, but the fees 
were so inconsiderable he resigned his post at the end of twelve 



ELECTED TO CONGRESS. 45 

months, and resumed the regular practice of his profession, in 
which he rose to great and sudden distinction. 



In 1821 he was elected Major-General by the field-officers of 
the division which comprised two thirds of the State. In 1823, 
he was recommended to offer his name as a candidate for Con- 
gress. In the various official stations he had filled, he had won 
so much respect, and at the bar he had displayed such rare 
ability, that he was elected to Congress without opposition. 
His course in the National Legislature was warmly approved 
by his constituents, and he was returned the second time by an 
almost unanimous vote. 

His course in Congress won for him the universal respect and 
confidence of the people of Tennessee, and in 182t he was 
elected Governor of that State by a majority of over 12,000. 
His personal popularity was unlimited, and his accession to 
office found him without an opponent in the Legislature. 

YI. 

In January, 1829, he married a young lady of respectable 
family, and of gentle character. Owing to circumstances, about 
which far more has been conjectured than known by the world, 
the union seems to have been as unhappy as it was short. In 
less than three months a separation took place, which filled 
society with the deepest excitement. Various reports flew 
through the State, all of them unfounded, and some of them 
begotten by the sheerest malignity, which divided the people of 
the State into two hostile parties, and inflamed popular feeling 
to the last point of excitement. As usual on such occasions, 
those who were most busy in the affair, were the very ones who 



46 HOUSTON SEPARATES FROM HIS YOUNG WIFE. 

knew least about the merits of the case, and had the least right 
to interfere. But unfortunately for the peace of society, there 
is everywhere a class of impertinent busy-bodies, who make it 
their special business to superintend and pry into the domestic 
affairs of their neighbors; and as curiosity must be gratified at 
any expense to private character, and such persons always like 
to believe the worst, the secrets of no family are exempt from 
their malignant intrusions. These are the disturbers of the 
peace of society whom the law seldom punishes, although they 
perpetrate more crimes than highwaymen and assassins — 
burglars of the domestic tranquillity of families — robbers of 
others' good name — assassins of the characters of the innocent. 

VII. 

Thinking, most probably, that they were doing her a kindness, 
the friends of the lady loaded the name of Houston with odium. 
He was charged with every species of crime man ever committed. 
The very ignorance of the community about the affair, by 
increasing the mystery which hung over it, only made it seem 
the more terrible. In the meantime, E[ouston did not offer a 
single denial of a single calumny — would neither vindicate him- 
self before the public, nor allow his friends to do it for him. He 
sat quietly, and let the storm of popular fury rage on. From 
that day he has, even among his confidential friends, maintained 
unbroken silence, and whenever he speaks of the lady, he speaks 
of her with great kindness. Not a word has ever fallen from 
his lips that cast a shade upon her character, nor did he ever 
allow an unkind breath against her in his presence. Whatever 
may have been the truth of the matter, or whatever his friends 
may have known or conjectured, he had but one reply for them: 
— " This is a painful, but it is a private affair. I do not recog- 
nize the right of the public to interfere in it, and I shall treat 



RESIGNATION OF THE OFFICE. 4t 

the public just as though it had never happened. And remem- 
ber that, whatever may be said by the lady or her friends, it is 
no part of the conduct of a gallant or a generous man to take 
up arms against a woman. If my character cannot stand the 
shock, let me lose it. The storm will soon sweep by, and time 
will be my vindicator." 

YIII. 

He had been elected to every office he had held in the State 
by acclamation, and he determined instantly to resign his office 
as Governor, and forego all his brilliant prospects of distinction, 
and exile himself from the habitations of civilized men — a reso- 
lution more likely to have been begotten by philosophy than by 
crime. 

We have no apology to offer for this singular event. If 
Houston acted culpably, it could not be expected he would 
become his own accuser. If he were the injured party, and 
chose to bear in silence his wrong and the odium that fell on 
him, he certainly betrayed no meanness of spirit, for he never 
asked the sympathy of the world. But notwithstanding his 
unbroken silence about the affair, and the sacrifice of all his 
hopes, he was denounced by the journals of the day, and hunted 
down with untiring malignity by those who had the meanness to 
pursue a generous man in misfortune. After his determination to 
leave the country was known, they threatened him with personal 
violence. But in this he bearded and defied them. 



IX. 

But his friends did not desert him while the sun of his for- 
tune was passing this deep eclipse. They gathered around him, 
and the streets of Nashville would have flowed with blood, if 



48 T H E W I G W A M HOME. 

Houston's enemies had touched a hair of his head. But such 
rufl&ans never execute their vows, when they have brave men to 
deal with, and Houston resigned his office, and taking leave of 
his friends, he quietly left the city of Nashville. He now turned 
his back upon the haunts of white men, and there was no refuge 
left for him but the forests. There he had a home, of which the 
reader has yet heard nothing ; it was far away from civilized 
life. 

While he was roving in his youth among the Cherokees, he 
had found a friend in their chief, who adopted him as his son, 
and gave him a corner in his wigwam. In the meantime, the 
chief with his tribe had removed from the Hi-Wassee country to 
Arkansas, and become king of the Cherokees, resident there. 
During their long separation, which had now lasted more than 
eleven years, they had never ceased to interchange tokens of 
their kind recollections. When, therefore, he embarked on the 
Cumberland, he thought of his adopted father, and he turned 
his face to his wigwam-home, knowing that he would be greeted 
there with the old Chiefs blessing. 



T H E E X r I, F, . 49 



SECTION FIFTH 



THE EXILE. 



I. 



His separation from his friends at the steamboat, was a touch- 
ing scene. He was a young man, for he had not passed his 
thirty-fifth year. He was in the vigor and strength of early 
manhood. He had filled the highest stations, and been crowned 
with the highest honors his State could give. They knew the 
history of his early life, and they felt pride in his character. 
He was literally a man of tlic? people, and they looked forward to 
his future advancement with all the pride of kindred feelings. 
A storm had suddenly burst upon his path ; but they knew it 
would soon sweep by, bearing him to a higher and fairer emi- 
nence than before. He seemed to be casting from him the palm 
of victory ; to be stepping down from his glory to obscurity, 
and his friends (and they were the 'people of Tennessee) parted 
from him with sorrow and in sadness. 



II. 



so 



And it was a strange sight to see one so young, around who 
brow the myrtle wreath of fame was twining, cast aside the 
robes of office and give up a bright future for a home in the 
wilderness. It was no flight of a criminal ; it was not even a 
ueccssarv retiremeut from turbulence and excitement, for even 



50 HOUSTOX'S ADOPTED FATHER. 

before he left, the fury of his enemies had abated and his real 
strength was greater than ever. But it was a voluntary exile 
from scenes which only harrowed his feelings while he stayed, 
and the Almighty Providence, which had shaped out his future 
life, was leading him in a mysterious way through the forests to 
found a new empire. Let those who laugh at a Divine Provi- 
dence, which watches over its chosen instruments, sneer as they 
read this ; they may sneer on — they are welcome to their creed. 

III. 

Landing at the mouth of the White River, he ascended the 
Arkansas to Little Kock, and then on, alternately by laud and 
water to the Falls of the Arkansas, four hundred miles to the 
northwest. The old chiefs wigwam was built near the mouth of 
the Illinois, on the east side of the Arkansas., and the Cherokees 
were settled on both sides of the river above Fort Smith. 

It was night when the steamboat, which carried Houstou, 
arrived at the Falls, two miles distant from the dwelling of the 
Cherokee chief. As the boat passed the mouth of the river, 
intelligence was communicated to the old man that his adopted 
son Coloneh (the Rover — the name given him on adoption) was 
on board. In a short time the chief came down to meet his son, 
bringing with him all his family, 

lY. 

This venerable old chief, Oolooteka, had not seen less than 
sixty-five years^ and yet he measured full six feet in height, and 
indicated no symptom of the feebleness of age. He had the 
most courtly carriage in the world, and never prince sat on a 
throne with more peerless grace than he presided at the council 
fire of his people. His wigwam was large and comfortable, and 




"The oi.d chief thkkw his ak.ms AKorxn m.M. and EMiiUACEU him with 

GKEAT AFFEninN." , paur 51. 



THE OLD chief's GREETING. 51 

he lived in patriarchal simplicity and abundance. He had ten 
or twelve servants, a large plantation, and not less than five 
hundred head of cattle. The wigwam of this aged chieftain was 
always open to visitors, and his bountiful board was always 
surrounded by welcome guests. He never slaughtered less than 
one beef a week, throughout the year, for his table — a tax on 
royalty, in a country, too, where no tithes are paid. 



V. 

Such was the home Houston found waiting for him in the 
forests. The old chief threw his arms around him and embraced 
him with great affection. " My son," said he, "eleven winters 
have passed since we met. My heart has wandered often where 
you were ; and I heard you were a great chief among your 
people. Since we parted at the Falls, as you went up the river, 
I have heard that a dark cloud had fallen on the white path you 
were walking, and when it fell in your way you turned your 
thoughts to my wigwam. I am glad of it — it was done by the 
Great Spirit. There are many wise men among your people, 
and they have many councillors in your nation. We are in 
trouble, and the Great Spirit has sent you to us to give us 
council, and take trouble away from us. I know you will be 
our friend, for our hearts are near to you, and you will tell our 
sorrows to the great father, General Jackson. My wigwam is 
yours — my home is yours — my people are yours — rest with us." 



YI. 

Such was the touching greeting the old chieftain gave him; 
and Houston has often been heard to say, that when he laid 
himself down to sleep that night, after the gloom and the 



62 THE CHILDREN OF TH'e FORESTS. 

sorrows of the past few weeks, he felt like a weary wanderer, 
returned at last to his father's house. 

Houston now passed nearly three years among the Cherokees. 
His history during this period is filled with stirring and beauti- 
ful incidents, many of which have come to our knowledge, well 
worthy of being related, since they would afford the finest 
pictures of the lights and shadows of forest life. But they 
would only illustrate more fully those characteristics of stern 
courage and wild heroism for v>diich he has, throughout his life, 
been so distinguished, and of which the world will require no 
better proofs than he has already given. We shall, therefore, 
pass by the romance of his forest life, at this period, and speak 
only of his untiring and magnanimous efforts and sacrifices for 
several years, in behalf of the oppressed and outraged Indians. 

The Red man on this continent has had few better friends than 
Houston. From his youth he loved the children of the forest, 
and among their wigwams, and around their council fires, he 
studied the mysteries of their nature. He has declared that, 
during an intercourse with them of many years, he never was 
betrayed or deceived by a Red man. Long familiarity with 
them had made him acquainted with their wrongs and their 
sufferings, and he knew why they looked upon the white man as 
their foe. He had robbed them of their forests and game — he 
had laid waste their wigwams, and introduced discord at their 
council fires — he had, with the glittering bribe t>f gold and rifles, 
enticed them away from their ancient haunts, and even driven 
them at the point of the bayonet from the graves of their fathers 
— and, worse than all, he had brought among them his accursed 
fire-water, which had melted down the lofty chivalry and unbend- 
ing strength of their primitive nature, and by that infernal 
agency degraded and enfeebled a power which, without it, they 
could never have subdued. This was the forerunner, and the 
hand-maid of his conquests — this was the magic wand he had 



H U S T O N B E F R I E X D 3 T II E R E D M A N . 53 

raised over their stern chieftains, and they had melted away. 
Was it any wonder that the stricken few who were left of those 
bold, nntameable tribes, that once possessed the fair lands of 
this broad continent, should know any other feelings towards 
their usurpers than revenge ! 

Houston knew all their wrongs, and sympathized in all their 
sufferings. He was now determined to devote himself to their 
interests, and be the guardian of their rights. He knew that 
General Jackson, who was then President, felt towards him the 
affection and confidence of an old and tried friend, and he was 
resolved to scrutinii^e the actions of the Indian agents, and sub- 
agents, with the greatest severity, and report the result of his 
observations to the President. 

YII. 

He was always invited to mingle in the Councils of the 
Cherokees during his residence among them, but while he often 
met them as a friend, he never entered their Councils, or joined 
in their deliberations. The chief counselled with him often 
about his people, nor was he long in becoming acquainted with 
the oppressions and glaring injustice which had been inflicted on 
them by the agents to whom their affairs had been intrusted in 
their migration to that country. In exchange for the territory 
they had occupied lov/er dov^n on the Arkansas, they were, by 
treaty, to receive twenty-eight dollars jper capita, which 
amounted, in the aggregate, to a vast sum. Instead of paying 
this money, as they should have done, certificates were issued 
by the agents, under the pretence they had no money, and as 
paper is always considered worthless by the Indians, merchants, 
who had connections with the agents, purchased up these 
certificates in a fraudulent manner for a mere song, representing 
that it was verv uncertain whether the Government ever could 



54 HIS OPINION OF THE INDIANS. 

send them money, A Mackinaw blanket, a j&ask of powder, 
and even a bottle of whisky, was often all these defrauded 
exiles ever got for the plighted faith of onr Government. 



YIII. 

In this manner, whole tribes were preyed upon by abandoned 
speculators, and so completely despoiled of the munificent appro- 
priations of Congress, that it is more than doubtful if a fifth 
part of the money, secured to them by solemn treaty, ever got 
into their hands ; and even the fraction which went to them 
only proved a curse. In speaking on this subject, General 
Houston once said : — • 

*• During the period of my residence among the Indians, in the Arkansas 
region, I had every facility for gaining a complete knowledge of the fla- 
grant outrages practised upon the poor Red men by the agents of the 
government. I saw, every year, vast sums squandered and consumed 
without the Indians deriving the least benefit, and the government, 
in very many instances, utterly ignorant of the wrongs that were perpe- 
trated. Had one-third of the money advanced by the government been 
usefully, honorably and wisely applied, all those tribes might have been 
now in possession of the arts, and the enjoyments of civilization. I care 
not what dreamers, and politicians, and travellers, and writers say to the 
contrary, I know the Indian character, and I confidently avow, that if 
one-third of the many millions of dollars our government has appropriated 
within the last twenty-five years, for the benefit of the Indian population, 
bad been honestly and judiciously applied, there would not have been at 
this time a single tribe Avithin the limits of our States and Territories, but 
what would have been in the complete enjoyment of fril the arts and all 
the comforts of civilized life. But there is not a tribe but has been out- 
raged and defrauded ; and nearly all the wars we have prosecuted against 
the Indians, have grown out of the bold frauds and the cruel injustice 
played off upon them by our Indian agents and their accomplices. But 
the purposes for which these vast annuities and enormous contingent 
advances were made have only led to the destruction of the constitutions 



F I R !0 - W A T }•: R A M O N G RED M K S . 55 

of thousands, and the increase of immorality among the Indians. We 
cannot measure the desolating effects of intoxicating liquors among the 
Indians by any analogy drawn from civilized life. With the Red man the 
consequences are a thousand times more frightful. Strong drink, when 
once introduced among the Indians, unnerves the purposes of the good, 
and gives energy to the passions of the vicious ; it saps the constitution 
with fearful rapidity, and inflames all the ferocity of the savage nature. 
The remoteness of their situation excludes them from all the benefits that 
might arise from a thorough knowledge of their condition by the Presi- 
dent, who only hears one side of the story, and that, too, told by his own 
creatures, whose motives in seeking for such stations are cften only to be 
able to gratify their cupidity and avarice. The President should be care- 
ful to whom Indian agencies are given. If there are trusts under our 
government where honest and just men are needed, they are needed in 
such places ; where peculation and fraud can be more easily perpetrated 
than anywhere else. For in the far-off forests beyond the Mississippi, 
where we have exiled those unfortunate tribes, they can perpetrate their 
crimes and their outrages, and no eye but the Almighty's sees them." • 

During the entire period he resided in that region, he was 
unceasing in his efforts to prevent the introduction of ardent spi- 
rits among the Indians ; and though, for more than a year, he 
had a trading establishment between the Grand River and the 
Yerdigris, he never introduced or traSicked in those destructive 
drinks. This, too, was at a period when he was far from being 
a practically temperate man himself. But, whatever might be 
his own occasional indulgences during his visits to Fort Gibson 
and other white settlements, he had too much humanity and love 
for the Red men, ever to contribute to their crimes or their 
misfortunes by introducing or trafficking in those damnable 
poisons. 

Cognizant of the frauds practised on these various tribes by 
the agents of the Government, he could not endure such intoler- 
able acts of outrage upon the rights and the sympathies of those 
whom he could not but esteem a generous and a good people ; 
and lie determined their conduct should be known at the seat of 



56 Houston's e n e m i e s . 

Government, not doubting they would be instantly removed. 
He visited Washington early in 1832, and made such represen- 
tations as caused an investigation into their conduct, and not 
less than five agents and sub-agents were promptly removed. 

IX. 

These disgraced men were, some of them, highly respedahle, 
and they had powerful friends in Congress. Their dismissal 
from office was, therefore, the signal of a general attack upon 
Houston from every quarter, where mortified pride or disap- 
pointment was aroused ; and even to this day these attacks are 
made. Before leaving Arkansas, the swindlers, whose conduct 
he had exposed, had crowded the journals of that region 
mith. the basest and most infamous libels against Houston's cha- 
racter. He had been the friend of the despoiled Red man ; and 
when he saw a band of land pirates leagued together to rob the 
poor Indian, his humanity was stirred, and he fearlessly tore off 
the mask which covered these perpetrators of such high-handed 
injustice. But it was a crime for which they never forgave him 
— and all that money, lavishly used, and friends in high 
stations, who shared the spoils of the robbers, and a venal 
Press, all moved by untiring malignity, could accomplish, to 
cover Houston v/ith infamy — icas done. 

X 

At that time, hostility against General Jackson had reached 
its culminating point. There was a majority against him in 
Congress, and this majority were bent upon his ruin as a public 
man. All the agencies that are resorted to, to crush a great 
man who is rising into fame, had been tried. Calumny had 
exhausted its venom, and hatred had belched forth all its malig- 



JACKSON THE FRIEND OF HOUSTON. 57 

nity. But the heroic old man had gone through it all unscathed, 
and he now sat calm and hic^h above the shafts of his foes. 



XI. 

But Houston was the sworn friend of the old General, and 
being a young man he could be more easily crushed. A despe- 
rate effort was made, to rally against him all the foes of General 
Jackson, and the effort was successful. One charge which he 
had made against the agents, and proved incontrovertibly, 
seemed to increase their former malignity a hundredfold. They 
had been contractors for furnishing Indian rations ; and through 
their injustice or delinquency, some of the Indians had died of 
starvation, and to multitudes only a scanty and insufficient sup- 
ply of food had been issued. These rations were issued at but 
one point in the two Nations (Creeks and Cherokees), which 
compelled the emigrants, as they had not had the benefit of a 
crop, to locate in the most unhealthy parts of the country, for 
there only their rations could be obtained. This prevented 
their establishment and creation of homes in the new country, to 
which they had emigrated. 

When the mask was torn off from this den of iniquity, by the 
bold, humane hand of Houston, he was attacked and pursued 
with ferocious malignity. 

XL 

But it was not enough to have stirred up the Press of the 
Nation against a lofty-minded and upright man : Now, all 
Congress was to be moved against him. It was necessary in 
this last desperate crusade, to hit upon a file-leader, who had 
distinguished himself for his malignant personal hatred of 
General Jackson, and, at the same time, he must have no 

3* 



58 A T T E il P T TO KILL HOUSTON. 

scruples against being the supple tool of wiser, but not better 
men, who pulled the wires beliiud the scenes. Characters of 
this description were not wanting in the Congress that waged 
this Third Punic War against the old man of the Hermitage ; 
but the most supple, brazen-faced, shameless of all, was a cer- 
t«oin politician, who had been elected as a friend of Jackson. 
He was chosen as the best instrument they could find, to use for 
their purposes. In his place in the House of Representatives, 
he assailed Houston, and charged him with an attempt to obtain 
a fraudulent contract for Indian Rations, and he boldly intimat- 
ed that the Secretary of War, and even General Jackson 
himself, were implicated in the attempt to defraud. 

XY. 

A crisis had now come. Houston had suffered all sorts 
of abuse before, and borne it in silence : but when he saw the 
fame, and even the integrity of Gen. Jackson, ruthlessly assail- 
ed on his account, by a member of Congress, he was determined 
to chastise him for his cowardly insolence to the President. He 
knew Houston's determination, and was careful not so cross his 
path. At last, one evening, wlien he knew, by positive infor- 
mation, that Houston was not armed, he crossed over to the 
other side of Pennsylvania Avenue (where Houston was walk- 
ing), for the purpose of perpetrating some foul deed in the 
dark, we have a right to suppose, since it was proved on 
the trial that he was armed, and did attempt the life of Hous- 
ton, who had no weapon about him but a hickory cane. 



XVI. 

As soon as Houston recognized his antagonist, through the 
moonlight, he asked him if his name was p ,, of Ohio. The 



v_^\Ah^^a^<i^'Wv-'^ 



H U S T N N T R I A L . 59 

answer had no sooner escaped his lips, than Houston, who knew 
he had no time to lose, since he was unarmed, levelled him to 
the ground, and shivered his hickory cane upon his head. In 
the meantime, he had snapped a pistol at Houston, but it missed 
fire, or he had been a dead man, for it was held to his breast. 
Houston spared his life ; and the politician crawled off to his 
bed, which he kept some days. 

XYII. 

The chastised member now caused four processes to be com- 
menced against Houston, by which he expected to crush 
and disgrace him for ever. He was arrested by the sergeant-at- 
arms, and brought before the House of Representatives, which 
resolved itself into a judicial tribunal, to try him on the 
charge of violation of the rights of one of the members, whom 
Houston had held responsible for words uttered in debate. The 
court sat nearly thirty days, and no means were spared to con- 
demn the accused man. It w.as argued, and with great ability, 
by his friends, that the House had no jurisdiction in the case ; 
that by the Constitution, Congress had been made a Legislative 
Assembly, but clothed with no judicial powers over American 
citizens. In this opinion, too, it is but just to add, some of 
Gen. Jackson's political opponents concurred. The matter 
dragged on nearly a month ; and as the conduct, the character, 
and the winning personal appearance of Houston, were conti- 
nually gaining him friends, and the public were becoming 
indignant that Congress should abandon the business of the 
country, to prosecute and lacerate an unfortunate and self- 
exiled man, who had bled in its service ; even his foes them- 
selves became tired of the prosecution. On the trial, Houston 
spoke in his own defence, at great length, and with consummate 
eloquence and abiUty. It was a touching spectacle, to see a man 



60 T 11 I p. T Y DAYS OF PUBLIC TRIAL. 

who had been four years a member of that body, the Governor 
of a great State, the bosom friend of Gen. Jackson, one who bore 
on his body the deep wounds received in fighting under the flag 
waving from the top of the Capitol, arraigned by jparty 'politicians 
before their bar, for having, iu protecting himself, while unarmed, 
from the stealthy attack of an armed coward, chastised a rene- 
gade demagogue, who had dared to charge the President of the 
United States with a bold fraud, because he thought he could, 
in his place in Congress, do it with impunity. Politicians of a 
certain class will at last learn, that iu their attempts to crush 
those bold and magnanimous men who stand by the masses of the 
people, and have, from the very beginning of the Government, 
led the popular majorities — they are only hastening the advance- 
ment of such m-en to power. 

XVIII. 

What turned the popular feeling in favor of Houston at the 
time, and made him dear to the people, just in proportion as he 
was persecuted, was the undeniable fact that he was brought to 
the rack and tortured there, because of his enthusiastic love for his 
old General f ivho was then President. 

This protracted and august trial, ended in a party vote of 
instructions to the Speaker, to reprimand the prisoner at the 
bar of the House. But the reprimand was delivered in so cour- 
teous and delicate a manner, it carried with it more of the tone 
of an approval than a reprimand. It was everywhere regarded 
as a signal triumph for Houston, since few men ever had so 
mighty a power marshalled against them. 

XIX. 

The second process was to move for a committee to be appoint- 
ed to investiirate the truth of the charj^e that member had made 



H I S A C Q U I T T A L . 61 

against Houston, of fraud in procuring a contract for furnishing 
Indian rations. A committee was raised and the demagogue was 
appoinled chairman, which threw into his hands power to crush 
his enemy, if the fraud could be proved. Houston, conscious of 
his innocence, had procured this measure to be adopted himself. 
And what was the result of this second attempt to ruin this 
man, who had come from his distant exile only on the humane 
mission — which an angel might have undertaken — of procuring 
justice for the outraged Indians. After a tedious and thorough 
investigation — after marshalling every circumstance they could 
to his prejudice, the committee was compelled to report that not 
the slightest evidence had appeared to sustain the charge. 

XX. 

Houston was still triumphant, and his foes made another effort. 
They introduced a resolution to exclude him for ever from the 
lobby of the House, where, as an ex-Member of Congress, and 
the Governor of a State, he had a right to go. But this also 
failed! 

Every process that could either injure or disgrace him, had 
now been tried in Congress, and so far from crushing him, he 
had been steadily rising. The fourth and last act in this dis- 
graceful drama then opened. At the instance of this same 
demagogue, who, by being flogged by Houston, had now won, 
what was doubtless to him, a very gratifying notoriety, he was 
indicted and held to bail in a criminal process of $20,000. He 
could have evaded the trial by leaving the District, but he met 
his enemy once more, and after twenty days he was fined $500 
and costs. But no enforcement of the sentence of the Court 
was ever attempted. It is worthy of remark, that the last act 
but one of Gen. Jackson's administration, was to remit the 
fine. 



62 HOUSTON RETURNS TO THE FORESTS. 

XXI. 

Seldom, if ever, in the history of this country, has so malig- 
nant a persecution been waged against a public man. Seldom, 
in the history of the world, has a man been able to withstand so 
mighty a conspiracy. But Houston came off triumphantly. 
During this entire period of attack and abuse, he had displayed 
no cowardice nor shunned the most searching scrutiny. He had 
bared his breast to his foes, and invited their weapons. And 
now, when they had given over the contest, and retired from it 
loaded with mortification and contempt, this hunted and perse- 
cuted man deliberately abandoned once more the haunts of civil- 
ization, and went voluntarily where his foes never could have 
driven him — back to his exile. 

XXII. 

He returned by the way of Tennessee, and wherever he went 
he was received with every demonstration of regard. Years had 
passed since other painful occurrences had taken place — and 
with them had passed, too, the storm they had raised. Reason 
had resumed it sway over the public mind, and a strong desire 
was manifested that he should again take, up his abode in Ten- 
nessee. The recent persecutions he had just passed through, 
had only won for him a deeper sympathy than ever, and all the 
pride of the State was aroused to protect and honor the man it 
had lost. But he could not be dissuaded from his purpose of 
returning once more to the forest. A sight of the spot where 
he had seen the bright hopes that had greeted his early man- 
hood, crushed in a single hour, only awakened associations he 
wished to forget; and he once more turned his face towards the 
distant wigwam of the old Indian Chief, where, after a year of 
persecution from Christian men, he found repose by the 



THE H K A Jl T II - S T N li O F A S A V A G K K 1 N G . Oo 

hearth-stone of a savage King — a biting satire upon civilized 
hfe. 

XXITI. 

It is not difficult to imagine the effect that such unrelenting 
persecution must have produced upon a sensitive, a proud and a 
magnanimous man. He had escaped civilized life, and gone 
where its pestiferous and calumny-loaded breath could not reach 
him. 

He had no more ambition to gratify. Posts of honor and 
emolument proffered by Gen. Jackson, he rejected — for he would 
never suffer the foes of the old Warrior and Statesman to heap 
opprobrium upon his name, for showing favor to a proscribed 
man. 



64 TEXAS THE NEW FIELD. 



SECTION SIXTH. 

TEXAS THE NEW FIELD. 

I. 

Ills intention was now to become a herdsman, and spend the 
rest of his life in the tranquillity of the prairie solitudes. A 
fondness for rural pursuits was now the only passion he had to ' 
gratify. Leaving* his wigwam, which was situated on the mar- 
gin of a prairie between the Yerdigris and the Grand River, a 
short distance from its junction with the Arkansas, he set out 
on the 1st of December, 1832^ with a few companions, through 
the wilderness to Fort Towson. At Nacogdoches he reported 
himself to the authorities, and a few days after went on to San 
Felipe de Austin, the seat of government of Austin's Colony ; 
after reporting to the authorities, he prosecuted his journey to 
San Antonio de Bexar. 

Here he held an interview wi^h a delegation of the Camanche 
Indians on a visit to that place. In all his intercourse with the 
authorities and citizens, his conduct was marked by great 
respect for law and the institutions of the country. After some 
days he returned with two companions to San Felipe de Austhi. 
At Nacogdoches he was now warmly solicited to establish his per- 
manent residence, and allow his name to be used as candidate for 
election to a Convention which was to meet in the following April. '^ 

* In 1S32, in view of the probable necessity of revolutionizing Texas, the people of the 
country openly and generally expressed themselves in favor of inviting either Houston 
or Carroll to come among them, and head any revolutionary movement that might be 
determined on. 



FIRST CIVIC LIFE IN TEXAS. 65 

II. 

He was now slow to yield to their request, for his purpose 
had been formally settled to abandon public life and enjoy the 
repose and solitude of a forest home. But a single glance at 
the resources of this new country, and the character and condi- 
tion of its population, satisfied him that a great destiny awaited 
them, and in imagination he already saw a new commonwealth 
rising into power. He was still in the morning of life — here 
was a new field for achievement, where all the bold elements of 
his character could find full play. Once embarked on the 
stream of a revolution, the world would learn, at last, the cha- 
racter of the man it had hunted from society, and history and 
time would pronounce his eulogy. Sober refiection convinced 
him that his public life was hardly yet begun, and* he permitted 
them to use his name for the sufi'rages of the people, who seem- 
ed at once to recognize his great qualities as a civil and military 
leader. 

III. 

While the election was going on, he returned to Natchitoches, 
in Louisiana, and made a report to the Government of the 
United States. Its origin is supposed to have been in the fact 
of his having been requested by Gen Jackson to ascertain the 
disposition of the Camanches to make peace with our Govern- 
ment, and- to prevail upon a delegation of that numerous 
and warlike nation to visit Fort Gibson on tlie Arkansas, and 
afterwards proceed to Washington. Gen. Jackson thought that 
the emigration of the Choctaws, the Chicasaws, and the Creeks, 
would be promoted by a Treaty of Peace with the Camanches, 
whose power and hostile disposition tiiey dreaded, in establishing 
themselves in their new home. As this was a confidential mis- 
sion, little is known of its history. But it is certain that in 



66 FIRST C N V E N T I O N IN TEXAS. 

Houston's interviews with the Camanches at Bexar, the objects 
were accomplished which had been contemplated by the mission. 
On his retnrn to Nacogdoches, he learned that during his 
absence he had been elected by a unanimous vote. He took up 
his residence among his new constituents, who had extended 
towards him so generous a greeting. 

lY. 

This Convention, which was composed of more than fifty 
members, assembled at San Felipe de Austin, the first of April, 
1833. It was the first deliberate assembly made up of men 
descended from the Anglo-Saxon race, which had ever assembled 
within the limits of the ancient dominions of Cortez, and the 
first step in that stupendous movement, which has already swept 
across the Cordillera Mountains to the green shores of the 
Pacific, where thousands of young riflemen from Kew York and 
New England have gone to plant fortresses of protection, and 
institutions of learning, like those w^hich are now overshadowing 
the crumbling despotisms of two hemispheres. 

The Convention met in a rude, narrow apartment — as the 
first colonists of the Grecian States are said to have organized 
those famous Republics of antiquity, under rude tents in the 
forests, robed in the skins of wild beasts. But there were men 
there, whose deliberations involved the fate of many millions. 

Y. 

As the delegates had their own expenses to pay, they pro- 
ceeded forthwith to the business wliich had called them together, 
and in thirteen days, they completed one of the best models 
extant, for a State Constitution. It was signed by the mem- 
bers, and a Memorial adopted by the Convei^tion. Stephen F. 



FIRST COLLISION WITH SANTA ANNA. 67 

Austin, William H. Wharton, President of the Convention, and 
James B. Miller, were appointed commissioners to bear the Con- 
stitution and Memorial to the Supreme Government of Mexico, 
and obtain the recognition of Texas as one of the States of the 
Confederacy. The Memorial set forth various reasons why 
Texas should become one of the States of Mexico ; amongst 
others, that it would enable her to negotiate terms with the 
hostile Indian tribes, and secure their rights to land previously 
promised by the General Government. Encroachments had 
been made on the Indian territory, subsequent to the rupture 
between the colonists and the Mexican soldiers, stationed at 
Nacogdoches, Yelasco, and Anahuac. This rupture had taken 
place in the summer of 1832, in consequence of a difference 
between Bustamente and Santa Anna. The former had 
attempted to subvert the Constitution of 1824, and the military 
throughout Texas had pronounced in his favor. Santa Anna 
declared himself the friend and supporter of the Constitution, 
and the colonists siding with him in the civil revolution, which 
had begun in Mexico and spread to Texas, had expelled the 
military, whose usurpations, up to that time, had been submitted 
to without murmuring. Santa Anna was now in power, and the 
colonists doubted not that Austin and his colleagues would be 
received with favor, and their Constitution ratified by the 
Federal authorities. 

YI. 

Austin alone finally went to the city of Mexico. He was 
received with some formality, but little encouragement was 
given to Jiis mission. In the meantime Santa Anna had resolved 
on establishing a military despotism, which, was the only reason 
that could have been urged against accepting the Constitution. 

In the formation of that instrument, the greatest care had 
been taken to render it entirely acceptable to the Central 



68 THE CONSTITUTION OF TEXAS. 

Government. In the organization of the States of Mexico, 
under the Federal Constitution of 1824, the Provinces of Texas 
and Coahuila formed one State, but the right had been reserved 
to Texas, of constituting herself a distinct State when her 
population would justify the measure. The Federal Govern- 
ment and Coahuila had for some time pursued towards Texas a 
policy which rendered it necessary for her to become a separate 
State as soon as possible. They had granted away her territory 
in large tracts, under the pretence of raising funds to enable 
Mexico to defend her frontiers against the Indians, but she had 
never appropriated one dollar to that object. For, whenever 
the Central Administration stationed any troops in Texas, it 
was in the towns nearest to the sea-board, where no hostile 
attack from the savages could be apprehended. Here, with a 
military force to overawe the citizens, a support of the Govern- 
ment, which vv'ould never otherwise have been conceded, could be 
extorted. The Frontiers were left without protection, and the 
colonists were obliged to protect themselves as best they could, 
against the hostile incursions of fifteen or twenty tribes of 
Indians. 

VII. 

We have already said that great care was taken to render the 
new Constitution acceptable to the Federal Government. 
Mexico, for example, had no banks. In the Convention, a 
measure had been brought forward, and an article proposed to 
be inserted, authorizing the Legislature of the State of Texas to 
create a bank or banks. This measure was introduced by 
Branch T. Archer, and supported by the principal men in the 
Convention. Houston was the only s[)eaker who opposed the 
policy. In principle he was opposed to any system of banking, 
except one whose powers could be brought within very narrow 
limits; and he did not believe a more fatal precedent could be 



Houston's policy for texas. 69 

established in the infancy of the new State. The exigencies of 
cupidity and of business would prove stronger than the enact- 
ments of law, and he was persuaded that no sound system of 
banking could be hoped for in so new a community. 

But he was opposed to the measure also, on the ground of 
policy. It would be a valid reason, if inserted, for Mexico to 
reject the Constitution, since it would be an innovation upon the 
Legislation of the General Government, and he was deeply 
anxious to preserve harmony, and wished Texas to defer to the 
prejudices and institutions of Mexico, rather than excite her 
jealousy by any of these new movements, which would at least. 
be hkely to excite suspicion, if not positive alarm. Houston 
spoke on this subject with great eloquence and convincing power. 
He caused the article in dispute to be stricken out, and one 
inserted prohibiting the establishment of all banks and banking 
Corporations, for a period of ninety-nine years, which passed the 
Convention by a large majority. 

YIII. 

This was the first illustration Houston gave of that wise and 
profound policy, which guided all his counsels during the long 
struggle Texas v>^as obliged to pass, before she could be admitted 
to the full prerogatives of an American commonwealth. We 
shall have occasion to remark the difference between his policy, 
and that of other public men, who figured on the same scene. 
All new States are infested, more or less, by a class of noisy, 
second-rate men, who are always in favor of rash and extreme 
measures. But Texas was absolutely overrun by such men. 
There seemed to be few of that class who give character to the 
institutions of new States, which spring suddenly into power, — 
men who are brave enough for any trial, wise enough for any 
emergency, and cool enough for any crisis. But fortunately, 



70 AUSTIN IMPRISONED. 

Texas had some such men, and she had a leader she depended 
on in the camp, and a Counsellor she relied on in the Senate- 
It is exceedingly doubtful what would have been her fate, but 
for him. And yet, we shall perceive, as we trace down Hous- 
ton's history, involving, as it necessarily does, the history of 
Texas, that all his difficulties and all the dangers of the State, 
and the sufferings and sacrifices of her people, grew out of the 
rash and headstrong movements of a few men, whose judgments 
and counsels were generally precipitate, and ended, when fol- 
lowed, in embarrassing the State, or plunging it into 
danger. 

IX. 

Those who were present in the Convention, have always 
attributed to Houston the moulding influence which controlled 
the action of the Assembly, and gave tone to the poUtical feel- 
ings and events that followed. They are also just as confident 
in the belief, that if restless and ambitious spirits, who will 
" rule or rend," had been willing to follow Houston's wise coun- 
sels, the Independence of Texas would have been achieved 
without much sacrifice of blood or treasure. We shall see how 
he at last triumphed, and how much sacrifice, care, and endur- 
ance, it cost him and his country. 



X. 

But to return to Austin, whom we left in Mexico, and in 
trouble. Finding his application fail, he concluded to return to 
Texas. On his way home, he was pursued by order of the 
Government, taken back to the Capital, and thrown into a 
dungeon, where he dragged out many montlis of gloom and suf- 
fering. He was an amiable, enlightened, excellent man, and a 



PUBLIC MEETINGS IN TEXAS. 71 

pure patriot. He was beloved and respected by the colonists, 
and his fame and virtues will be long cherished by the Texans. 
During his imprisonment, stories of his sufferings reached Texas, 
and everywhere they produced a deep sensation. The indig- 
nation of the colonists burst forth like the rage of a single man. 
There was, at that time, only one press in Texas [at Brazoria], 
but it gave utterance to the wrongs of the people ; and although 
few in numbers (for the entire population of Texas did not 
exceed 20,000 souls), yet, instead of exercising discretion, they 
spoke freely of the wrongs they endured, and the rights guaran- 
teed to them under the Constitution of 1824. Houston dis- 
couraged such unrestrained ebullitions of feeling, since they 
would be likely to plunge Texas into a bloody struggle with 
Mexico, hefore she ivas prepared for it — while he was as anxious 
as any man, for the day of her political redemption. 



XI. 

Austin had been cast into prison, with no definite accusation 
alleged against him, and without even the form of a trial. At 
length he was liberated by Santa Anna, and permitted to return 
home. He had great confidence in Austin, for he had shown 
himself a friend of order on all occasions in Texas, and loyal to 
the principles recognized at the time. He had first migrated to 
that country with 300 families, as colonists — and thus intro- 
duced the materials of that vast political structure, which was 
subsequently wrought into form and beauty. When he returned 
to Texas, he found the public mind inflamed, and indignation 
had been expressed in municipal meetings. But when public 
feeling was subsiding, and few, if any, orderly men were thinking 
of extreme measures, Santa Anna showed clearly that nothing 
sliort of absolute power would satisfy him. 



12 SANTA anna's TYRANNY. 

XII. 

The colonists were alarmed, and precautionary measures were 
taken. They were ruled by Mexican laws, and governed by 
officers who followed blindly Mexican edicts. Rumors were 
constantly reaching Texas, that the colonists were laboring 
under the disapprobation of the ^lexican government. The 
commerce of Texas, had been placed under restrictions of the 
most oppressive character, and the worst men had been set over 
the administration of the customs. Tax-ation had become 
oppressive. The people had been baffled in all their attempts 
to secure justice, and large sums of money had been extorted 
from them in obtaining titles to the lands they had improved, 
and which had been guaranteed to them by the Mexican 
government. An edict of Santa Anna had demanded of the 
people, the surrender of their private arms. This struck them 
like an electric shock. It not only exposed their wives and 
children to the fury of hostile Indians, but to all the horrors of 
starvation — for many families depended upon wild game for 
daily subsistence. 

XIII. 

At Gonzales, there was a piece of artillery for the defence of 
the place, which was called into almost weekly requisition by 
the incursions of the Indians. It was the capital of Dewitt's 
Colony, situated on the eastern bank of the Guadalupe, about 
seventy miles east of Bexar. In obedience to Santa Anna's 
edict, Ugartchea, a Colonel in the Mexican army, in command 
of several hundred dragoons, marched to Gonzales, from Bexar, 
to carry off the four-pounder. The colonists flocked together 
for the rescue of the little field-piece. Some skirmishing took 
place, without any serious consequences at the moment. But a 
great point had been won — the first shut had been fired by the 



TEXAS PREPARES FOR THE STRUGGLE. 73 

Mexican army, and the swords drawn that day, were to be 
returned no more to their scabbards, till the last link in the 
Mexican fetters, which had bound the youthful form of Texan 
Liberty, had been snapped asunder, and she stood erect among 
the nations. 

xiy. 

Austin arrived at the scene of the struggle, and was elected 
General of the Forces. The insurgents not only rescued their 
four-pounder, but resolved to pursue the enemy to Bexar, 
and drive the base myrmidons of the Mexican tyrant from their 
soil. A general alarm v/as spread to the banks of the Sabine. 
Eastern Texas had hitherto been disposed to remain tranquil, 
supposing all might not be so bad as rumor proclaimed it ; — • 
but the torch of war had now been lighted, and Texas rose 
everywhere like a single man. 

Committees of Vigilance and Safety, had been constituted in 
the Municipalities of San Augustine and Nacogdoches, and 
a partial organization of the militia under their direction, had 
taken place. In the meantime, Houston had been chosen 
General of Texas, east of the Trinity. An invitation had been 
given by the people of the coTmty of Brazoria, and responded to 
by other Municipalities, to elect delegates to meet in a General 
Consultation, to devise means of safety, in the event of danger ; 
for they had now become pretty well satisfied that they had 
little to hope for from the despot of Mexico. 



XV. 

Austin had proceeded on to Bexar with his forces, and invested 
it. The colonists marched to him from all sections of the Pro- 
vince, till eight hundred armed men joined his standard. Thes^ 

4 



74 THE PATRIOT AUSTIN, 

events occurred in October, 1835. The Consultation was to 
meet early in that month at Washington and at the specified time, 
fifty-six delegates assembled. At their first meeting, they con- 
ferred, and changed the place of deliberation to San Felipe, 
v/here they received an invitation from Gen. Austin to repair to 
Bexar, pledging himself, if they complied, that he would reduce 
the place in three days. After his advance upon Bexar, citizens 
residing near Matagorda and Victoria, formed a company, and 
under the command of Captain Collins worth, reduced Goliad, 
and maintained possession of the town. On the first meeting of 
the Consultation, General Austin wrote to Houston, to send on 
bis Division of troops. Houston took from his pocket the last 
five dollars he had in the world, and put it into the hand of a 
good rider, with dispatches to his Division, and in a short time 
the Redlanders were rapidly mustering for the scene of war. 
Immediately after having received the invitation of General 
Austin, Houston, with the major part of the Consultation, set 
out without delay for Austin's Camp, at the Salado, within three 
miles of Bexar. 

XYI. 

Soon after their arrival. General Austin, in whose pure and 
lofty mind, love of country outweighed all considerations of per- 
sonal aggrandizement, feeling diffident to lead an army at such a 
time, proposed to surrender his command to Houston. Houston 
most positively declined his magnanimous offer, alleging, among 
other reasons, that the troops, then in the field, were either those 
who had elected Austin as their commander, or had marched to 
the camp in obedience to his requisition: and he believed it 
would furnish a pretext for the seditious and disaffected to aban- 
don tlie service, and defeat the objects of the campaign. But 
he frankly offered to render General Austin any aid in his 
power, in organizing or drilling his command. 



PROVISIONAL DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 75 

A Council of War was held in the camp, to which the principal 
officers and members of the Consultation were invited. A ques- 
tion arose as to the jDropriety, or rather necessity, of forming a 
Provisional Government, which could be done only by the 
re-assembling of the members of the Consultation at San Felipe. 
In this exigency, the Council of War determined to refer the 
subject to the Army. The following day the troops were drawn 
up, and their vote taken. They were unanimous in the opinion 
that the Consultation ought to re-assemble and form a Provi- 
sional Government, and devise ways and means for maintaining 
the army then in the field; and adopt such measures as would 
give Texas credit abroad. 

XYII. 

After General Austin had marched the army some ten or 
twelve miles below, to the Mission of Espada, the members of 
the Consultation repaired to San Felipe, where they re-orgau- 
ized, and once more opened their deliberations. They made a 
Provisional Declaration, exhorting all Mexicans to unite in 
maintaining the Constitution of 1824; and pledged their lives, 
property, and sacred honor, in support of its principles. They 
established an organic law for the Provisional Government of 
the Province, and organized a temporary administration for it. 
Houston was one of the Committee to frame the Declarati^p. 
A disposition existed on the part of the members of the Com- 
mittee, to make a Declaration of absolute Independence, and 
such a resolution was adopted. Considering this movement 
premature and ill-judged, he got a member of the majority to 
move a reconsideration of the vote. By one of the ablest 
efforts of his life, he carried his point: and on the trial, there 
was found to be a considerable majority in favor of the Pro- 
visional Declaration. 



t6 Houston's i x d i a x costume. 

XVIII. 

These deliberations were held in a little framed building of 
one floor — without ceiling or plaster — whose only apartment 
.was the narrow room where they assembled. Houston, as was 
his custom in those days, was dressed in buckskin breeches, and 
a Mexican blanket. But the appearance of the room, and the 
costume of the members, had little to do with their delibe- 
rations. In regard to this freak of Houston, of dressing for 
years, a la sauvage, General Jackson is reported to have said, he 
" thanked God there was one man, at least, in Texas, who was 
made by th^ Almighty, and not by a tailor." When Houston 
took up his abode in the forests, he assumed the simple and 
picturesque costume of the proud race among whom he dwelt ; 
that portion of the world, which had poured gall into his 
lacerated bosom, and finally hunted him into the forests, now 
invaded the solitude of his new home. One of his crimes was, 
that he had become an Indian — even in his dress. Certainly 
these men " the tailors had made" — and he must have been an 
outlaw, whose dress was more like a Roman Senator's than the 
dandy's of Broadway. 

Some of Napoleon's officers were once laughing, on the morn- 
ing of one of his great battles, at the gay dress of Murat as he 
rode by, decked in ribbons and plumes. 

/'You may smile, Messieurs/^ said Napoleon, "at my dandy 
Marshal, but take care that when the columns are shot down 
to-day, you keep your eye upon him — for where you see Murat's 
gaudy plumes, there will be the hottest of the fight. Let 
a hero have one folly, gentlemen." Diogenes lived in a tub, 
but from all accounts, the world felt a good deal more disturbed 
about it than the old philosopher himself. 

Yes, Houston, the adopted sou of an Indian Chief, vrore the 
dress of his tribe ; but he carried a brave heart under his 



COMMANDER IN CHIEF. It 

blanket. He refused to be a candidate for any office ; what he 
could do, however, he was ready to do. A Governor aud Lieu- 
tenant-Governor were elected. A Council was also created — 
one member from each Municipality — and the requisite number 
of officers appointed for the administration of such a govern- 
ment. The Council was to continue in session till they should 
be superseded by officers elected by the people. Measures were 
also taken for raising a Regular Army, and organizing the 
militia. 

XIX. 

Another event took place, which decided the fate of Texas. 
The man in buckskin, and the Mexican blanket, was, with only 
one dissenting voice among more than fifty members, elected 
Commaxder-ix-Chief of the armies of Texas. 

There was no alternative for Houston but to accept the 
office. There was no one else gifted with those great qualities 
which nature lavishes on men born to command. He accepted 
the appointment, and proceeded to appoint his staff, and draw 
up the necessary bills for the organization of the Army, and the 
appointment of the officers of the line — embracing a competent 
organization of the forces to be raised. 

XX. 

Texas had not a dollar at this time ; and previous to Hous- 
ton's election, Commissioners had been appointed to visit the 
United States to forward her interests, and procure a loan to 
sustain her under the pressure of her bold undertaking. Austin, 
Wharton, aud Archer, were appointed Commissioners, and they 
were already on their way. Houston's hopes of money were not 
sanguine. He regarded Texas as thrown upon her own re- 
sources, and such aids as could be afforded by individuals whom 



78 A PR OC LAM ATI ON. 

the spirit of patriotism might inspire with generosity. At 
that moment, there were few men in the United States who had 
any adequate conception of the importance of those early move- 
ments, or dreamed of the results that were to follow. Even 
now, as these grand events of the last twenty years pass in 
review before us, we seem, in the soberness of sohtary reflection, 
to be tracing the progress of one of the States of Antiquity. 
But there are few men who understand great social or political 
changes, till they have become matters of history. We shall, in 
the sequel, glance at some of the causes which have operated to 
cloud and prejudice the minds of the people of this country on 
the entire subject of Texas. 

XXI. 

In the meantime. General Houston issued a proclamation, 
inviting five thousand volunteers to unite in the cause of Texas. 
The Army still remained in the field under Burleson, who had 
succeeded to the command, after General Austin had left for 
the United States. He was an early settler of Texas, and a 
good man ; but destitute of those great qualities which fit men 
for military control. Before General Austin left the army, 
Fannin and Bowie, with about one hundred men, encountered 
five hundred Mexicans at the Mission Conception. The action 
was sustained gallantly by the Americans, and the Mexicans 
retreated, leaving some dead on the field, and carrying with 
them many wounded. The victors then marched to the neigh- 
borhood of Bexar, and posted themselves above the town. 
Colonel Benj. B. Milam, who had then no command in the 
Army, proposed that volunteers should turn out, who were 
willing to enter the town of Bexar, and storm the place. 
About two hundred flocked to his banner ; and led by the gal- 
lant Milan, whose chivalry entitled him to the confidence 



CAPITULATION F T H E A T, A If . *?9 

of such brave men, entered the town at night ; and takhig pos- 
session of certain buildings, made tlieir way with crowbars 
through the walls, from house to house. After performing acts 
of singular bravery for several da"ys, the heroic Milam fell, his 
head pierced by a rifle-ball ; and, shortly after their leader's 
death, the troops got entire possession of the town, and the 
Alamo (the enemy's fortress) capitulated. " 

XXII. 

A singular spectacle was presented on the morning of the 
capitulation. Not less than eleven hundred Mexican soldiers, 
passed before a little band of less than two hundred Texans, and 
laid down their arms. They were released on their parole 
of honor, and marched to Mexico by General Cos. This same 
General violated his faith, and fought at San Jacinto, The 
colonists were now generally discharged, and marched to their 
homes, with the exception of the gallant Company which had 
reduced the Alamo. During the siege of Bexar, a Company called* 
the New Orleans Greys, under Captain Morris, and another 
Company from Mobile, under Captain Breeze, had arrived, as 
volunteers from the United States. They bore a gallant part 
in the siege, and every man engaged in the town, deserved and 
secured renown. 

XXIII. 

While the troops were before Bexar, a Dr. Grant arrived, and 
joined the Army. He had been concerned with an Enghsh Mining 
Company, at Parras, but he had fallen under the displeasure of 
the Mexican Government, and was obliged to fly. He was a 
Scotchman by birth, but did not seem to possess much of the 
methodical shrewdness which characterizes that nation. 3e 
was a man of much more than ordinary capacity, but, in all 



80 THE SPIRIT OF FACTION. 

military affairs, seemed to be destitute of judgment and discre- 
tion. As one of the aids of General Austin, he claimed the 
command of the troops remaining, after Burleson had retired 
with most of the Army. He immediately projected the inva- 
sion of Matamoras, for he entertained a single-hearted hatred 
of the Mexicans, and he induced the New Orleans Greys, and 
Capt. Breeze's Company from Mobile, to join him in the expedi- 
tion. These two Companies accordingly took up their march for 
Matamoras, by the way of Goliad. At the same time. Grant 
opened a correspondence with the General Council, which 
unfortunately at the time contained some men of capacity utter- 
ly destitute of moral principle, and carrying on machinations 
which were in the end to terminate most disastrously for Texas. 
The members of the Military Committee of the General Council 
coincided with Grant's plan of attack upon Matamoras, and 
thought it necessary, in effecting its capture, to destroy Hous- 
ton's influence, and create a power that would supersede him. 

XXIY. 

In the appointment of his staff. General Houston had chosen 
J. W. Fannin, Jr., his Inspector General. He had held com- 
mand at the battle of the Mission of Conception, and arriving at 
the Council* of San Felipe, Houston, who felt that he deserved 
an appointment in the line of the Army, obtained for him the 
Colonelcy of the Regiment of Artillery, which placed him next 
in command to himself. 

The Council — to effect their designs without reference to the 
safety of the country — thought proper to direct the head- 
quarters of the army to be established at Washington, fifty 
miles distant from the sessions of the Council. This, of neces- 
sity, removed Houston's station, and it was evident they believed 
the success of their intrigues depended upon getting him as 



^ M U S T E R I N G A N A Pv SI Y . 81 

far off as possible. About the middle of December, he repaired 
to Washington, and continued there, engaged in his arduous 
duties. Meantime he had assigned the officers of the Regular 
Army to their several recruiting stations, and directed them to 
make such reports as would enable him, at any time, to know 
the number and condition of the regular force. 

Fannin was ordered to Brazoria, the principal recruiting 
rendezvous, and Houston supposed, of course, that his orders 
would be carried out with a strict regard for his authority. 
But his dispatches were utterly disregarded. At this time, 
letters were circulated through the country, to create a suspi- 
cion, that Houston's design was to establish a military govern- 
ment, by raising five-thousand volunteers, through the sanction 
of the General Council. 

XXV. 

Houston bore this in silence, but endeavored to counteract it 
by the efficiency of his conduct. About the 1st of January, 
he received orders from Governor Smith, — who had detected 
the secret intrigues of the council, with Grant, Fannin, and 
others, to repair to San Felipe, while the General had been at 
Washington. Colonel Ward's command from Georgia, and the 
Alabamians, had arrived at the mouth of the Brazos. Houston 
had taken precautions, and issued his orders for all troops that 
might arrive in the country ; requiring them to report to the 
Governor as nominal Commander-in-Chief, and to himself as 
Commander of the Array, on their arrival. Fannin being in the 
neighborhood of the United States volunteers when they landed, 
paid no attention to the orders of General Houston ; and aban- 
doning his post as an officer of the Regular Army, became a 
candidate for the Colonelcy of the regiment that was to be 
formed, by the union of the Georgia and Alabama troops. 

4* 



82 H U S T N 'S PLANS FOR THE CAMPAIGN. 

Governor Smith do sooner detected the treasonable conspiracy 
of the Council, than he manifested the highest disapprobation of 
their conduct, and of course excited their hottest displeasure. 
Fannin treated all General Houston's dispatches with cool con- 
tempt, and looked only to the orders of the Council. He had 
made known to them his desire to be elected Colonel of the new 
Regiment ; and in accordance with their views, he was chosen 
to the new post. Ward being put second in command. They 
were then ordered to sail from Yelasco, to Copano, and thence 
to march to Refugio Mission, twenty miles dis'tant from their 
landing, where Grant was to join them with his command, on 
their way to Matamoras. 

XXYI. 

In obedience to his orders, Houston reported to the Governor 
at San Felipe ; and was ordered to repair to Refugio, where a 
juncture of the troops was to be effected. He returned forth- 
with to Washington ; and after arranging matters at head- 
quarters, proceeded to the execution of the Governor's orders. 
He reached Goliad about the middle of January, 1836, and 
found Grant and his troops on the eve of departure for Refugio. 
General Houston made known to the troops the orders under 
which he was acting, and urged obedience to his authority. 
Ignorant of the extent to which the Council had gone in 
thwarting his intentions to save the country by routing the 
enemy on their first engagement, and knowing it was impossible 
for the troops at Bexar to maintain the place, he dispatched 
Colonels Bowie, and Bonham (of South Carolina) on the 15th 
of January, with an escort to Bexar, directing the commanding 
ofiicer to blow up the Alamo, and fall back to Gonzalez on 
the Guadalupe, which he intended to make the line of 
defence. 



OPOSITION TO OVERCOME, 83 

XXYII. 

Grant and Morris refused obedience to the orders of the 
Governor, while Houston was left without the power of account- 
ing for their extraordinary conduct. He marched with them 
twenty-five miles id Refugio Mission, leaving a few Regulars 
to maintain the post at Goliad, with no subsistence but the 
cattle of the country. He arrived at Refugio, but no intelli- 
gence had come of Fannin's landing. 

The Governor, refusing to concur in their lawless measures, 
had been deposed by the Council — although under the Organic 
Law, which required a certain number to constitute the 
Council or transact business, they had ceased to be a lawful 
Body. The conduct of the stormy spirits in that Council, had 
disgusted and enraged their more patriotic and rational col- 
leagues ; and unwilhng to concur in their high-handed and 
treacherous movements, they had withdrawn, reducing their 
ambitious associates to an incompetent number. But they 
were nevertheless determined to brave it out, and "rule or 
rend." 

XXYIII. 

Houston did not wish to be the cause of insubordination, for 
he was aware that it would require all the harmony and union 
possible, to save the country. Yet knowing that all the troops 
from the United States had left with the expectation of serving 
under himself, he used every persuasive he thought convincing, 
against the expedition to Matamoras ; and then resolved to 
return and report in person to the Governor. The only object 
of the Council in directing the campaign upon Matamoras, was 
to command the revenues of the place. Houston at once dis- 
covered the absurdity of such a plan, since the possession of 



84 A DARK r U T U R E F i: TEXAS. 

Matamoras by an enemy, would cut off all intercourse with the 
interior, and prevent all communication with the sea ; and he 
had forecast enough to know, that, if an army could reach 
Matamoras without opposition, they could not keep it a single 
week, with a force of only seven hundred men. But they could 
never reach the sight of its walls. They had an area of several 
hundred miles to pass, with no means of transportation — they 
had not three days of breadstuffs, and the men were unprovided 
in every respect for a campaign. 



XXIX. 

Houston remonstrated with the officers in a friendly manner ; 
representing the great difficulties" they would have to encounter 
— the futility of the project — and the disasters attendant on a 
failure. So careful was he to avoid exciting sedition among the 
troops, who bowed very reluctantly to the command of any 
other General — that he set out from Refugio in the night, with 
a few of his staff, for San Felipe. 

On the road he received news that the Council had deposed 
the Governor, and superseded his own authority — also, letters 
of Colonel Fannin, which had been published, showing his 
reliance on the Council, and disregarding all other authorities. 
This opened Houston's eyes to the true situation of the country, 
and he saw that unless something was done, without delay, to 
repair the evil, and to prepare the nation for the trying struggle 
she must pass, in wading through a Revolution — all would be 
lost. The hopes, which had greeted the first dawning of Anglo- 
Saxon Liberty in the fair Province of New Estraniadura, 
seemed likely to be extinguished, and it is not strange that 
a man who had been prevailed on to exchange the tranquillity 
of a forest life — where he could find repose from persecution — 



PERSECUTION. 85 

to mingle in the struggles of a Nation emerging into a free 

existence, should, when he saw himself still hunted down 

by malignant rivals, and his hopes clouded, feel his great- 
heart dejected by sadness. 

XXX. 

But men whom God raises up to become leaders of Nations, 
cannot be crushed — in the midst of. their adversities they may 
seem, for a moment, to bow before the blast, yet they never 
despair. For not more sure was Columbus to surmount at last 
all opposition, and plant his feet upon the green shores of the New 
World, than are such men in the end, to overcome all their foes 
and triumph over even the malignity of fortune. All the way 
to San Felipe, he was troubled by the most painful suspense — 
whether to withdraw once more from the treacheries and persecu- 
tions of the world, and bury himself deep in the solitude of nature, 
and pass a life of communion with the Gl*eat Spirit, and his 
beautiful creations — or whether he should boldly mark out a 
track for himself, and in leading a new people to Independence, 
trample down all opposition. During most of the day he rode 
along in silence, and none of his companions disturbed his reve- 
ries. Towards evening he addressed them — he made a rapid but 
clear survey of events that had passed — contemplated the present 
state of affairs, and dwelt with enthusiasm upon the future pro- 
spects of Texas. He seemed to read her future, as the prophets 
did the unwritten history of Judah. He had fixed his purpose, 
and the world could not move him. After making an official 
report to the Governor, he proceeded with his Aide-de-Camp, 
Major Hockley, to the Cherokee Nation — in pursuance of instruc- 
tions received from the Consultation — to form Treaties with them 
and other tribes. He met the Indians in Council — and having 
been returned as a delegate to the Convention which was to 



86 THE 2d of march, 1836. 

meet in Washington on the 1st of March, be arrived there the 
day previous. The Convention assembled and organized — the 
following day, the 2d of March, 1836, the Declaration of 
Independence was adopted and signed. 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 8t 



SECTION SEVENTH. 

THE GENERAL. 
I. 

The Declaration of Independence, for which public feeling 
had been precipitately matured, was adopted unanimously, and 
hailed throughout Texas with joy and acclamation. So was it 
received, too, by the people of the United States, wherever they 
had even a faint conception of the issue made in the struggle, or 
the vast magnitude of the consequences that were to follow. 

II. 

But, from the hour the news that Texas had declared herself 
free and independent reached the United States, a feeling of 
hostility was excited against the Infant Republic, without 
a parallel in the history of the world. Losing sight of the 
grand moral results that were to flow from that event, and 
unmindful even of the hour of our own need, when we 
extended our feeble hands to France for help, a loud burst of 
indignation went up from a thousand newspapers, and every- 
where the Declaration of Texan Independence was declared to 
be an act of high-handed robbery, perpetrated by a band of bold 
outlaws. To have emigrated to that part of the world, was 
enough to brand a man with infamy ; and those who gave 
the little they could afford, to help on the struggle, cast their 
mite into the Texan Treasury in silence. All recollection of 



88 THE BRAVE MEN IN THE ALAMO. 

our fathers, and the days of their dark struggles, seemed to be 
as completely obliterated from the memory of many of our coun- 
trymen, as though they had been swept by the waters of obli- 
vion. We forgot that many of the men who were fighting 
those battles, were descended from the early settlers of James- 
town and Plymouth ; that hearts were nerved there for the 
defence of liberty, whose fathers had poured out their blood at 
Yorktown, and Saratoga, and Bennington, and Bunker's Hill I 
And who were the men w*ho joined in this ten years' crusade 
against the liberties of a Sister Republic ? And how would the 
victors of San Jacinto have been laughed by them in scorn, 
away from our altars of confederate freedom, if they had not 
themselves been crushed by the simultaneous rising of an indig- 
nant people at the Elections which soon followed. 



III. 

Some days before the Declaration was adopted, letters had 
been received from Travis, in command of the Alamo, -at Bexar, 
notifying the people of Texas, — for there were then no chief autho- 
rities of the country — that he was invested by a numerous force 
in the Alamo, calling loudly for help. Houston, it will be 
remembered, anticipating this very result, had given orders to 
the commanding officer to abandon and blow up the Alamo; but 
his orders had been disobeyed by the officer, and treated with 
contempt by the General Council, who had ordered the com- 
mander to defend the place to the last, promising to reinforce 
him. And now the brave men in the Alamo were to atone for 
the treachery and low ambition of a few selfish men. The pro- 
mised reinforcement was limited to thirhj men, making Travis' 
whole effective force not more than one hundred and eighty-five, 
and without n month's provisions — detached from all Texan 



A L E T T n R F R ir COL. TRAVIS. 89 

settlements more thaa seventy miles, and the intervening terri- 
tory swept by the Mexican cavalry. 

lY. 

As the Provisional Government, by which Houston had 
been elected Commander-in-Chief, had ceased when the Conven- 
tion assembled, he resigned his Major-Generalship. But, there 
was no other man in Texas to whom the people could look in 
this emergency. The Convention went into the election of 
a Commander-in-Chief, and out of fifty-six votes, Houston, who 
was not present, received all but one vote, Texas had no organ- 
ization of forces, and the few gallant men from Georgia and 
Alabama in the field, were detached beyond the southern settle- 
ments, under the command of a man who had treated the orders 
of the Commander-in-Chief with contempt. The treatment 
Houston had received from the Council was known, and 
the people feared he would decline the office. A deep gloom 
now hung over the public mind. Apprehension and alarm were 
written on every face, and the conviction became almost univer- 
sal, that the cause of Texan Independence was lost, unless 
Houston would accept the command of the Army. Impressed 
with the general feeling, and stirred by the heroic spirit 
which has always guided him, he resolved to peril every- 
thing, and stake life itself upon the issue. He accepted the 
command. • 

Y. 

On Sunday, the 6th of March, a letter was received from Col. 
Travis, addressed to the President of the Convention, brought 
by the last express that ever left the Alamo. The intelligence 
it conveyed was no sooner known, than an electric terror flashed 
through the community. The members, and a crowd of spec- 



90 HOUSTON* IN THE CONVENTION. 

tators, rushed to the Hall of the Couveution, the President to 
his chair, the members to their seats, without summons or signal. 
The President rose, and announced the receipt of a document of 
*' the most important character ever received by any assembly of 
men." He then read a letter from Col. Travis, of the most 
thrilling character. It was written in all the fervor of patriotic 
and devoted courage; but it breathed the language of despair. - 
Robert Potter rose, and moved that " the Convention do imme- 
diately adjourn, arm, and march to the relief of the Alamo." 
Houston, feeling that the next movement made in the Conven- 
tion would be likely to decide the fate of Texas, determined 
what should be done by the Convention, as well as by himself. 



VI. 

All eyes were turned upon him, and as he rose from his seat, 
it would seem that, for a moment, every heart in the assembly 
stopped beating. He opposed the motion, and denounced it as 
madness, worse than treason, to the people. They had, to be 
sure, declared themselves independent, but they had yet no 
organization. There must be a government, and it must have 
organic form — without it, they would be nothing but outlaws, 
and could hope neither for the sympathy nor respect of mankind. 
He spoke nearly an hour, and his appeal, if he ever was elo- 
quent, was eloquence itself. He admonished the Convention of 
the peril of the country; he advised them to sit calmly, and 
firmly and coolly pursue their deliberation; to be wise and 
patriotic; to feel no alarm, and he pledged himself instantly to 
repair to Gonzalez, where he had heard that a small corps of 
militia had rallied, and interpose them between the Convention 
and the enemy; and while they chose to sit in Convention, the 
Mexicans should never approach them unless they marched over 



THE FALL OF THE A LA M . "91 

his dead body. In the meantime, if mortal power could avail, 
he would relieve the brave men in the Alamo. 



YII. 

Houston stopped speaking, and walked immediately out of 
the Convention. In less than an hour he was mounted on his 
battle-horse, and with three or four brave companions was on 
his way to the Alamo. Men looked upon it as an idle and des- 
perate attempt, or surely more would have followed him. The 
party rode hard that day, and only stopped late at night, to 
rest their horses. They were now in the open prairie. At 
break of day, Houston retired some distance from the party, and 
listened intensely, as if expecting a distant signal. Col. Travis 
had stated in his letters, that as long as the Alamo could hold 
out against the invaders, signal guns would be fired at sunrise. 
It is a well authenticated fact, that for many successive days, 
these guns had been heard at a distance of over one hundred 
miles across the prairie — and being now within the reach of their 
sound, Houston was anxiously waiting for the expected signal. 
The day before, like many preceding it, a dull, rumbling mur- 
mur had come booming over the prairie like distant thunder. He 
listened with an acuteuess of sense, which no man can understand 
whose hearing has not been sharpened by the teachings of 
the dwellers of the forest, and who is awaiting a signal of life or 
death from brave men. He listened in vain. Kot the faintest 
murmur came floating on the calm, morning air. He knew the 
Alamo had fallen, and he returned to tell his companions. The 
event confirmed his convictions, for the Alamo had fired its last 
gun the morning he left Washington; and at the very moment 
he was speaking in the Convention, those brave men were meet- 
in ^c their fate. 



92 HOUSTON' S FOLIC Y. 

VIII. 

After returning to his companions, who were preparing 
to pursue their march, he wrote a letter to the Convention 
recommending them to adopt a resolution declaring T'exas a 
'part of Louisiana under the Treaty of 2803. His suggestion 
was not adopted, but if he had been there to enforce it by his 
commanding eloquence, it would doubtless have been passed- — 
for in those deliberative assemblies he was as absolute as ever 
Cromwell was in the Rump Parliament, with a thousand 
bayonets at his back. In this case, too, he would have had the 
the means of conviction in the policy he proposed. Such a 
measure would have won for them the sympathies of Legisla- 
tures, as well as peoples. They would not then have been 
regarded as a separate people. It would have matured the 
Republic and its institutions ; it would have shortened the 
period of her struggles. Neither the question of recognition nor 
annexation would have been raised — she would have been 
adopted at once. Houston looked at the whole matter with 
the eye of a statesman, and the heart of a soldier. He knew 
that Mexico would have withdrawn at once from the conflict, if 
Texas had at once been constituted a part of Louisiana. 

IX. 

If, then, it be asked, why Mexico, at last, not only made war 
upon Texas, after the Great Powers recognized her indepen- 
dence, but against the United States after annexation, we 
answer, that there is no man who knows enough about this 
suljject to qualify him to hazard an opinion, who does not under- 
stand and believe, that Mexico was emboldened to provoke the 
war, only because of the long, powerful, persevering, and 
desperate hostility with which a thousand newspapers and 






o 2 o 










THE LAST GUN FROM THE ALAMO. 93 

a thousand public men, in this country, resisted the annexation. 
These presses and these public men held the very same language, 
and displayed the very same spirit towards Texas, that Santa 
Anna, and Bravo, and Bustamente, and Almonte, and Herrera, 
and Paredes, and their hireling presses exhibited. In fact, the 
hopes of these miUtary despots all rested upon the efforts of the 
enemies of Texas in the United States, and not upon their popu- 
larity at home, or the power of their cannon, or the justice of 
their cause. In New York and Philadelphia, and Boston, they 
stationed their most trustworthy and confidential agents ; here 
they expended their money, and here their battles were fought. 
Who of those bold impudent tyrants would have dared to tread 
upon a single fold of the mantle that wrapped the youthful 
form of Texan Liberty, if its very name had not been made a 
by-word among the children of the Heroes of '76 ? It is known 
that Paredes never apprehended any danger of being brought to 
battle ; he never expected he would be called on to make good 
his braggart threats. And later, when this mad hostility against 
Texas had been frowned down by the American people, its 
grand movers were glad enough of the first chance offered to 
redeem their American character. They threw off the Mexican 
disguise, voted the ten millions and the fifty thousand volunteers 
with loud huzzas, threw up their caps to the hero of Palo Alto 
and La Resaca de la Palma, and made him President of the 
United States. 



The Alamo had fired its last gun, and its brave defenders had 
met their fate. But Houston proceeded to Gonzalez, although 
not a man joined him on the road. On netting out from the 
Convention, be dispatched an express to Fannin, directing him 
to form a junction with him on the Cibolo, a small river between 



94 THE MASSACRE OF THE ALAMO. 

Gonzalez and San Antonio, intending with the united forces to 
march to the relief of the Alamo. About the 10th of March, 
(1836) he reached Gonzalez, where he found 314 men. They 
were without organization, and destitute of supplies — they were 
neither armed nor clad for the campaign. He at once had them 
assembled and organized, the men electing their own officers. 
Scouts who had been dispatched to the neighborhood of San 
Antonio, returned about the time of Houston's arrival, under 
the impression that the Alamo had fallen. This created some 
sensation among the troops, and immediately afterwards two 
Mexicans, whose families had resided among the American 
colonists, came in from the region of San Antonio and confirmed 
the general apprehension. Houston, who was satisfied that 
their statement was correct, had it written down. It repre- 
sented that the Alamo had been taken on the morning of the 
6th of March, and every human being in it slaughtered, except 
a woman, her child, and a negro ; that after their slaughter, 
the dead had been dragged out and piled together with wood, in 
one vast hecatomb, and burned to ashes I 

XI. 

When the news of this act of cold-blooded barbarity flew 
through the colonies, it stirred up a spirit that would never sleep 
again. But the day of vengeance was rapidly coming — the 
hour of San Jacinto was not far off. Houston immediately sent 
another express to Fannin (March 11th), apprising him of the 
fall of the Alamo, and ordering him to evacuate Goliad, blow up 
the fortress, and fall back without delay upon Victoria and the 
Guadalupe. This would unite all the forces then in the field, 
which Houston regarded as the only means of saving Texas. 
Fannin's force, the General estimated at over 500, and once 
joined to his own, the army would number at least 900 effective 



MRS. Dickinson's story. 95 

men, since Fannin had a fine supply of arms brought from the 

United States. 

XII. 

This- order reached Fannin some eight days before he 
attempted a retreat ; indeed he did not attempt it at all, till he 
had been surrounded by the Mexicans several days. In reply 
to the orders of the commander-in-chief, Fannin sent an express, 
saying he had held a council of war, and had concluded to 
defend the place, and had named it Fort Defiance. He also 
said, he was prepared to abide the consequences of disobeying 
his orders. The sequel showed but too well how prophetic was 
the glance Houston cast over the future. 

XIII. 

On the twelfth (we believe) of March, about eight o'clock in 
the evening, Mrs. Dickinson arrived with her child at Gen. 
Houston's camp, accompanied by two negro guides, sent to 
attend her by Santa Anna, and also to bring a proclamation of 
pardon to the insurgent colonists, if thev would lay down their 
arms. The proclamation was, of course, treated as such papers 
had been by our fathers, when they were sent to their camps of 
suffering by the myrmidon generals of a British king. Mrs. 
Dickinson was the wife of one of the brave officers whose bones 
had crumbled on the sacrificial pyre of the Alamo. Houston 
was walking alone, a few hundred yards from the camp, at the 
moment this stricken and bereaved messenger arrived. He 
returned soon after, and found that her fearful narrative of the 
butchering and burning, with some of the most stirring details 
of that dark tragedy, had , already struck the soldiers with a 
chill of horror ; and when she told them that 5,000 men were 
advancing by forced marches, and their artillery would soon be 



96 P A N I C I x\ T E X A S . 

heard at Gonzalez, the wildest consternation spread through the 
camp. Their alarm soon reached a pitch of desperation. Some 
were stunned with silence — others were wild^ith lamentations 
— and even officers had set fire to their tents. 



XIY. 

When Houston came up, he ordered silence, and the fires to 
be extinguished. He then addressed the soldiery in the most 
fervid manner, and they all gathered around him, except a few 
who had at the first impulse fled for their horses. He detached 
a guard instantly to intercept fugitives, and more than twenty 
were brought back to the camp. But a few good runners made 
their escape to the settlements, and carried panic in every 
direction. 

XY. 

The General announced to his comrades that he should that 
night fall back to a more secure position, as they were in a bend 
of the river, where the enemy, by crossing, could cut off all 
possible retreat. Acccfl'dingly, about eleven o'clock that night, 
Houston ordered every light in Gonzalez to be extinguished, 
and leaving a rear-guard with orders to use the utnjost vigilance, 
and give information of the first approach of tlic enemy, he 
ordered the camp to be struck, and the little band took up their 
line of march in good order. On reaching Gonzalez, feeling 
assured that the disasters which finally followed, were inevitable, 
he had ordered nil the women and children to be transported to 
the interior settlements ; for througliout the entire Texan 
struggle, he was resolved that the helpless should never be left 
to the tender mercies of the jVIexicaus. Before the crisis came, 
he hoped the transports would return, but in this he was disap- 



T II E MARCH. 97 

pointed, and that night the entire army was followed by only 
one baggage waggon, which was drawn by four oxen. 

XTI. 

He continued his march that night to Peach Creek, ten 
miles from Gonzalez, and halted to refresh the troops. He 
was there met by a reinforcement of a hundred men, which 
increased his army to upwards of four hundrerl and fifty. The 
fugitives from Gonzalez had "met this company and given them 
the news from the Alamo, and so anxious had they become, 
that nearly one quarter of them had left their officers to hurry 
on to the camp. About day-break, an hour after the arrival 
of the army at the Creek, an explosion was heard in the di- 
rection of Gonzalez. It produced an electrical effect upon the 
army, and many exclaimed it was the enemy's cannon. An- 
other and a third explosion were heard in quick succession. 
Houston afterwards said, that they were the most agreeable 
sounds he had ever heard. On the march that night, he was 
informed that several barrels of intoxicating liquors, left in a 
store at Gonzalez, had been poisoned by arsenic, and he de- 
nounced it as a monstrous act, and not to be justified even by 
the barbarities of their savage foe. Understanding at once the 
cause of the explosions, Houston quieted their apprehensions by 
announcing the reason. It has been stated that Houston had 
ordered the town of Gonzalez to be reduced to ashes ; but 
credible men who were there, declared that the charge was not 
only false, but that he was angry when he heard the fact. The 
gallant Captain Karnes, who had been left in command of the 
rear-guard, believing its destruction would be an annoyance to 
the enemy, and deprive them of the merchandise and other sup- 
plies, had set the town on fire. After a halt of three hours, the 
army continued tlieir march to the Brazos. At the La Baca he 

5 



98 A LUSTRE TO THE SETTING SUN. 

received the letter from Colonel Fannia, which has already been 
referred to, and he is said to have turned to his aide-de-camp, 
Major Hockley, and pointing to the little band which seemed 
but a speck on the vast prairie, said ; '' Hockley, there is the 
last hope of Texas. We shall never see Fannin nor his men — 
with these soldiers we must achieve our independence, or perish 
in the attempt." It was a sad and j^loomy march. Over the 
fatal tragedy of the Alamo seemed to come the dirge of 500 
more devoted men. 

XYII. 

Towards evening, they perceived, at a distance, a small mov- 
ing mass in advance, which soon proved to be a company of 
some thirty volunteers, from the Brazos, under Captain Splann. 
Even this diffused some cheerfulness, and added to the lustre of 
the setting sun an additional ray. 

At night they encamped on the La Baca, where Houston 
created a volunteer aide-de-camp of Major Wm. T. Austin, and 
dispatched him to the settlements of the Brazos, to meet him 
with supplies of cannon, &c., on the Colorado, where he intended 
to make a stand against the enemy. A person present has 
given a graphic account of a scene that occurred that night in a 
little shanuce. Hockley was sitting on a block, writing out the 
orders i>r Austin, as they were dictated by General Houston, 
who was feeding a little fire with oak splinters, to furnish the 
only light their extremities allowed. 

XYIII. 

On the assurance of Austin that supplies could be obtained, 
Houston had directed him to bring not less than seven pieces of 
mounted cannon, with mules sufficient for draught, and at least 
twelve good horses for his spies, with ammunition sufficient for 




•'HOCKLKY AVAS SITTISG OX A BLOCK, WRITING OUT THE ORDERS FOR Al'STIX. 
AS THEY WERE DICTATE!) BY GeX. HOUSTON, WHO WAS FEEDING A LITTLE FIRE 
WITH OAK SPLINTERS, TO FURNISH THE ONLY LIGHT THEIR EXTREMITIES AL- 
LOWEll."' V-^gC i^'8. 



H U S T N ' ti II U M A N I T Y . 99 

the artillery. The march was continued to the Navidad — whero 
intelligence reached him that a blind woman and her seven 
children had been passed by, and were not apprised that the 
enemy was approaching. The General immediately detached a 
company of fifty men, under two confidential officers, and delay- 
ed his march till the woman and her little orphans were brought 
safely to the camp. 

XIX. 

We have before us a dispatch written by Houston, " from 
the camp on the Navidad," to the chairman of the Military 
Committee, dated March 15, from which we make a few 
extracts : 

" My morning report, on my arrival at the camp, showed 374 men, 
without two days' provisions ; many without arms, and others without 
ammunition. We could have met the enemy and avenged some of our 
WTongs ; but, as we were, without supplies for men in the camp, either of 
provisions, ammunition, or artillery, and remote from succor, it would 
have been madness to have hazarded a contest. 

* * The first principles of the drill had not been taught the men. * * 
If the camp had once been broken up there would have been no hope for 
the future. * * / am fearful Goliad is besieged by the enemy. All 
orders to Col. Fannin, directing the place to be blown up, and the can- 
non to be sunk in the river, and to fall back on Victoria, would reach 
him before the enemy could advance. * * I directed, on the l^th of 
January last, that the artillery should be moved, and the Alamo blown 
up ; but it was prevented by the expedition upon Matamoras, the cause 
of all our misfortunes.^^ 

These extracts show, beyond a question, that the horrid 
slaughter at the Alamo was foreseen by Houston, and caused 
by violating his orders. Also, that the still more bloody tragedy 
of Goliad was in the commander's eye before it happened, and 
caused in like manner by disobeing his orders. The lives of hun- 



100 DOWN THE COLORADO. 

dreds of the bravest men paid the penalty: and Texas did not 
recover from the fatal consequences for many years. 

XX. 

From the Navidad he marched on to the Colorado, where he 
halted till all the women and children, and non-combatants, with 
their cattle and horses, had safely crossed over. Leaving a 
guard on his rear, he went over the Colorado with the main 
army. On this day, Itth of March, he thus writes the Military 
Committee: '' To-day, at half past four p. m., we reached this 
Point (Burnham's). * * It pains me at heart that such 
consternation should be spread by a few deserters from the 
camp, but we are here, and if only three hundred men remain 
on this side the Brazos, I will die with them or conquer our 
enemies. * * Send agents to the United States. Appeal to 
them in the holy names of Liberty and Humanity. * * Let the 
men from the East of the Trinity rush to us. Let all the dis- 
posable force of Texas fly to arms." 

XXI. 

On the following day he marched down the eastern bank of 
the Colorado, about twelve miles, and encamped opposite 
Beason's, to await the arrival of Austin with his supplies. 
During this period he had to keep pickets for more than thirty 
miles up and down the river to prevent surprise. Shortly after 
his arrival, it was ascertained that General Sezma had advanced 
to the opposite side of the river, and taken a position a few 
miles above the Texan Camp, which caused Houston's rear- 
guard to fall back over the river. They had, without authority ^ 
from their General, set fire to Burnham's premises, as the 
enemy had encamped near by. 



Houston's army. 101 

Houston now sent a detachment with orders to secrete them- 
selves in a strong position, supposing that the army would be 
likely to pass the river with a strong advance guard, and the posi- 
tion of the Texans being well chosen, would enable them to dis- 
comfit five times their number. As he had anticipated, the 
enemy crossed the river with upwards of fifty cavalry, uncon- 
scious of the ambuscade, and would have been completely cut 
ofi*, had it not been for the imprudence of one man, who fired 
upon them too soon, and thus advertised them of their danger. 
No other attempt was made to cross. 

Some few reinforcements and supplies reached the camp about 
this time. But his entire force, including all his detachments, 
did not exceed 650 men: and his artillery not arriving, he was 
unable to cross the river and give battle to General Sezma. 
Austin had limited his arrival with the supplies and artillery to 
twelve days, and although the time had passed, nothing had yet 
been heard from him. A slight skirmish had taken place be- 
tween a party of riflemen and an advance guard of the enemy, 
but without any decisive result. 

On the 23d March, Houston wrote to Mr. Rusk: 

" You know I am not easily depressed, but, before my God, since we 
parted, I have found the darkest hours of my life. For forty-eight hours 
I have neither eaten an ounce of anything, nor have I slept. All who saw 
the deserters, breathed the poison and fled. It was a poor compliment to 
me to suppose I would not advise the Convention of any necessity that 
might have arisen for the removal." 

XXII. 

In the midst of all this gloom and suspense, the news came, 
which burst like a bolt of thunder over the little army — Colonel 
Fanninh Regiment has all been massacred! A Mexican, by the 
name of Peter Kerr, had brought the intelligence, and although 



102 THE SLAUGTER OF GOLIAD. 

he had not a shadow of doubt the man's story was true, yet 
such was the alarm it had created, the General was obliged to 
throw miscredit upon the messenger, to prevent his camp from 
being deserted. The fall of the Alamo had well-nigh dispersed 
the little anny, and when they heard that 500 brave comrades, 
fully armed and equipped, had all been cut off, their consterna- 
tion was redoubled. The last barrier between them and a 
slaughtering army seemed swept away, and it was not strange 
that this last sad news had unnerved their courage. 



XXIII. 

Houston had his part to play that night, and he played it 
well. In such exigencies all the difficulties have to be overcome 
at once. He instantly called for the sergeant of the guard, and 
denouncing Kerr as an incendiary of the Mexicans, sent to his 
camp to produce distraction, declared in a furious passion he 
would have the sj^y shot the next morning at nine o'clock. An 
order was immediately given to have the man arrested and 
placed under a strong guard. He then addressed the soldiery, 
and adduced many reasons why the news could not be true. 
His apparent disbehef calmed the excitement, which had reached 
a fearful pitch. Houston would not see the prisoner, till the 
camp had retired to rest. He then went to the guard-fire and 
heard his story. He knew that his worst apprehensions had 
become history. He gave private orders to have his prisoner 
treated kindly, and the next morning he forgot to have him 
executed ! The excitement had passed away with the dreams 
of the soldiers — but the prisoner could not be released at once, 
since everything which savored of the Mexicans was odious to 
the army, and Houston would have been charged with turning 
loose a spy, and perhaps collusion with the enemy. 



PREPARING TO MEET THE E X E M Y . 103 

XXIV. 

Houston struck his camp that evening, and marched towards 
the. Brazos. The army reached San FeUpe the next night, 
effecting a march of about twenty-eight miles in less than 
twenty-four hours. We find in one of the General's dispatches, 
dated 

•' Camp, West of Brazos, March Slsi. 
" My intention was to have attacked the enemy on the second night 
after the day Fannin's destruction was reported by Kerr. * * Send me 
daily expresses, and let me know what to rely on. I must let the camp 
know something, and I want everything promised, to be realized by them, 
and I can keep them together. I have thus far succeeded beyond my 
hopes. I will do the best I can ; but be assured, the fame of Jackson 
could never compensate me for my anxiety and mental pain. Two nights 
since, when it was reported that the enemy was on this side of the Colo- 
rado, the citizens of San Felipe reduced it to ashes. There was no order 
from me for it." 

On the 3d of April, Houston again writes the Secretary of 
War. After describing the massacre of Fannin's command, he 

says : — 

" Humanity must recoil at the perfidy which has been exercised towards 
brave and heroic men, who have perished in the unequal conflicts with the 
enemy, when they were always more than six to one. Will not our friends 
rush to the conflict, and at once avenge the wrongs which have been 
inflicted on our dauntless comrades ? The day of just retribution ought 
not to be deferred." 

Again, on the 6th of April, he says : — 

'' The enemy shall be closely looked to, and the first favorable moment 
seized with avidity, to effect his total defeat." 



104 THE CAMP ON THE BRAZOS. 

XXY. 

The army encamped on the night of the 29th of March at 
Mill Creek, and the following day reached their destination 
opposite Groces. The steamboat' Yellow Stone, which was 
lying at the landing, was at once pressed into the service, and a 
company of troops stationed on board to prevent the boat or its 
engineers from running off. The army remained in the same 
position till the 11th of April. During this time, the river had 
swollen by the spring rains, and as Houston's camp lay on an 
island of the Brazos, where he was secure from the enemy, he 
constructed a narrow bridge, by which communication was 
maintained with the enemy's country, over which the Texan 
scouts could pass, to gather information, and hold a keen vigi- 
lance of the movements and designs of the Mexicans. 

XXYI. 

Before the waters reached their greatest height. General 
Houston had designed, as soon as the enemy should approach 
San Felipe, to march with all his force, and surprise them at 
night, believing that their confidence, inspired by numbers, dis- 
cipline, and success, would have completely thrown them off 
their guard, which would give an easy victory to the Texan 
commander. But when he learned of the arrival of the enemy 
at San Felipe, the freshet was at its height, and having three 
creeks without fords, to pass in his march, this boldly conceived 
plan failed. Although no fortunate result followed many of 
these designs of Houston, yet they will show to the reader the 
sleepless vigilance and bold daring, of the man upon whose move- 
ments was suspended the fate of the young Commonwealth. 
We also deem their relation important, because they serve to 



MARCHING TO SAN JACINTO. 105 

render the reader familiar with the chances and changes of war- 
fare, and the qualities necessary in the citizen who leads an 
army to the field. 

XXYII. 

The company left in charge of San Felipe, having retired to 
the east side of the river, and thrown up a partial fortification 
of timber, the enemy immediately opened the artillery upon 
their breastworks, and the noise of their cannon announced to 
Houston the first certainty of their approach. A company of 
eighty men, which had just arrived at the camp from Eastern 
Texas, was detached with another body to succor Captain 
Baker, while, by means of expresses, the Commander-in-Chief 
kept up communication with the troops at San Felipe and Fort 
Bend. 

His entire force at Groces, where the main body of the army 
lay, did not now exceed five hundred and twenty men. He had 
been encouraged to expect not less than five hundred men from 
the Redlands, and they could have been furnished ; for they 
were already in the field, and many of them had advanced their 
march to the banks of the Trinity. But some turbulent men, 
who where willing to ruin the country rather than fail in Hous- 
ton's destruction, raised rumors of Indian hostilities, which pre- 
vented them from joining him. Amongst them was General 
Quitman's command from Natchez — a fine company of south- 
ern chivalry, who were thus prevented from participating in the 
triumphs of San Jacinto. They arrived at the camp two days 
after the victory. The country behind Houston was entirely 
depopulated. He never fell back till the women and children 
were secure from danger — always interposing the army between 
the enemy and the helpless. 



106 HOUSTON THE ONLY HOPE OF TEXAS. 

XXVIII. 

He had now become apprised of the strength, position, and 
designs of the enemy. They were marching upon him in three 
Divisions. The Centre was to advance from San Antonio to 
Gonzalez, Beason's, and by San FeHpe or Washington, and 
Robbins' Ferry to Nacogdoches — led by Santa Anna himself. 
The Second Division, under General Urrea, was to march from 
Goliad by the way of Victoria to Brazoria and Harrisburg, 
while the upper or Third Division advanced by Bastrap to 
Tenoxtitlan on the Brazos, and thence to the Camanche, cross- 
ing the Trinity, on to ^"acogdoches. The plan of the campaign 
gave evidence of the superior ability of Santa Anna, and showed 
Houston the man he had to deal with. At the same time the 
entire scheme had to be broken up in less than thirty days, or 
Texas would be swept by three rolling streams of fire, which 
would cover the land with desolation, and blot out the last hope 
of the Republic. How this almost impossible work was to be 
achieved, no one knew but Houston. There was a painful feel- 
ing of suspense throughout the little army, and all eyes were 
turned anxiously upon their bold leader. There was no longer 
a doubt in the mind of any who knew the position of affairs, 
that the salvation of Texas, under God, had been thrown 
entirely upon Houston's arm. 

XXIX. 

What was his policy ? Apprised of all this, he believed that 
the Divisions were sufficiently detached to be managed in detail, 
if the succors he had a right to expect should reach him in 
time. His position on the Brazos, enabled him to cover a larger 
extent of country than any other he could have selected, and 
was one of the most eligible for supplies. During his entire 



SANTA ANNA ADVANCING. 101 

encampment there, he was sending frequent expresses to Eastern 
Texas, and while he represented his true situation in his con- 
fidential dispatches to the Committee of Vigilance and Safety at 
Nacogdoches, he was in the habit, we have heard, of endorsing 
the envelopes with certain postscripts, that all might see that 
his force did not exceed twenty-five hundred men; for he 
believed if his real situation was known, it would deter all 
succors from coming to his aid. This is the only origin we have 
discovered for the report of his having so large a command. 

XXX. 

About the 11th of April, news came from Fort Bend that 
the Centre Division, under Santa Anna, had already crossed the 
river at that place. The company stationed there, not maintain- 
ing the vigilance enjoined, the ferry-boat was taken over by 
a negro to the western side. By this means they were enabled 
at once to pass the river. Had it not been for this circum- 
stance, the Brazos being at high flood, they could not have 
passed for a month, and Houston could have maintained his 
position till his safety inspired a confidence that would have 
reinforced his army. 

XXXI. 

A fortunate combination of circumstances enabled Houston 
to maintain himself against the influence that seemed to be 
marking his destiny. The Upper Division of the Mexican 
army, under Gaono, became bewildered in their march, and 
ascended the Colorado. The South Division, under TJrrea, was 
delayed by high waters, and never passed the Brazos at all. 
Santa Anna had, doubtless, learned that Harrisburg had 
become the seat of Government, after the adjournment of the 
Convention, which took place on the Itth of March, and was 



108 THE COWARDICE OF THE GOVERNMENT. 

prepared to take advantage of the alarm which this flight of the 
officers of the Kepublic had spread over the colonies. The 
Convention had broken up in utter consternation and dismay, 
and only seven of its members ever found their way to the army. 
None but those who were on the ground can have any con- 
ception of the fatal consequences that attended this movement. 
It is safe, probably, to say that to it, more than any other cause, 
was it owing that Houston received no more reinforcements in 
that trying crisis. A constitutional act had been passed by the 
Convention, creating a Government ad interim, consisting of a 
President, and Secretaries of War, Navy, and the Treasury, 
with all powers incident to a Government, except the law- 
making. They had adjourned to Harrisburg, not less than 
seventy miles from the scene of war. This flight of the 
wise men and the worthies of the nation, was calculated 
to alarm the old, the young, and the helpless, to afford an 
excuse to the timid, and sanction the skulking of the cowardly. 
Many brave men, who had joined Houston, hearing of the 
general consternation which had followed the adjournment of 
the Convention, could not resist their natural impulses to go 
and render protection to their abandoned flying wives and 
children. Houston has often declared that this was one of the 
most appalling circumstances that ever befell him while strug- 
gling for Texas, and we find it confirmed by his dispatches. 

XXXII. 

But the event proved it was fortunate for him, that Santa 
Anna had heard that Harrisburg had becomcthe seat of Govern- 
ment, for it caused him to abandon his general plan of invasion, 
and diverge from his route to Nacogdoches, with a view to 
capture the self-preserving administration of the new Republic. 
As soon as General Houston received intelligence that Santa 



THE TWO FIELD PIECES. 109 

Anna was crossing the Brazos, he dispatched without delay his 
orders for all the troops, scattered up and down the river, from 
Washington to Fort Bend, a distance of more than eighty miles, 
to join him on his march to Harrisburg. While he lay on the 
Bro.zos, General Rusk, now Senator from Texas, and then newly- 
appointed Secretary of War, instead of flying from the scene of 
danger, when the rest of the cabinet fled, hastened to the 
Commander-in-Chief on the Brazos. They advised together 
cordially on all matters connected with the welfare of Texas, 
and harmonized most perfectly in the means necessary to be 
adopted. The steamboat Yellow Stone was put in motion, and in 
two days the entire army, with their baggage-wagons and horses, 
was transported to the eastern side of the Brazos. On the shore, 
Houston met the first artillery which had been under his control. 
They were two six-pounders (a present from some patriotic men 
in Cincinnati), but they were without equipments necessary for 
use, except that they were mounted. There being a smith's shop 
and gunsmiths there, who had been employed in repairing the 
arms of the troops, the two field-pieces were immediately made 
ready for effective use, and all the old iron in the neighbor- 
hood cut into slugs, and formed into cartridges. The little army 
halted a few miles from the Ferry, and encamped for the night. 

XXXIII. 

After the Commander-in-Chief had, as was his uniform custom, 
examined in person the state of the camp, and seen that every- 
thing necessary for an early march had been done, he inquired 
the route for Harrisburg. Houston had never before been in that 
region ; but he took the precaution to inform himself perfectly of 
the geography of the country, well knowing that he was liable to 
be surprised any hour by a superior force. One road led to Nacog- 
doches, crossing the Trinity at Bobbins' Ferry ; and Houston 



110 NOT A TENT IN THE ARMY. 

knew that this was the road Santa Anna must have taken 
in his march upon Harrisburg. The main army, amounting to 
between seven and eight hundred men, was now put in motion. 
They marched that day (16th April) to McArley's, a fatiguing 
march of eighteen miles, through a prairie. There were fourteen 
baggage-wagons, and two pieces of artillery in the train. Ex- 
cessive, rains had made the prairie boggy, and in many places the 
wagons had to be unloaded, and the dismounted field-pieces car- 
ried, or rolled, through the mire. This brought into requisition 
the entire physical strength of the army. Houston had, early in 
the march, foreseen what lay before his men, and on the first 
emergency, he stripped off liis coat, dismounted, and set the ex- 
ample of unloading and transporting baggage and guns, and so 
continued throughout the day, commanding and aiding the 
soldiers with his personal strength. The brave little army halted 
at sun-set, and laid themselves down to sleep in the open field, 
without covering, for there was not a tent in the camp. About 
dark, a cold rain set in, and continued for twenty-four hours. Such 
were the hardships those men were compelled to undergo, while 
working out the emancipation of their country. 

XXXIY. 

The second day (Hth) they pursued their exhausting march 
through the rain, twelve miles, to Burnett's settlement, which 
they found deserted. Another night followed — the soldiers slept 
on the wet ground, with their arms in their hands, ready to 
answer in a single moment the three taps of the drum, which 
was the only instrument of martial music in the camp, and which 
was never touched but by the General himself. The third day's 
march (18th), through the prairie, of eighteen miles, brought 
them to Post Oak Bayou, where they encamped for the night. 
Their toilsome march through the prairie was now over, and 



THE TIME TO FIGHT 111 

they were only six or eight miles from Harrisburg. But Santa 
Anna had been there before them, and reduced the town to 
ashes, on his march to New Washington. 

XXXY. 

The army had marched up within two miles of the stream, 
and almost in sight of the ruin, and prepared to cross the Buf- 
falo Bayou, which lay between them and the scene of desolation. 
The gallant Karnes, and Deaf Smith, swam over the stream with 
several companions, and in a short time brought back over the 
Bayou two expresses that bore most important intelligence. On 
the person of the courier, who was a Mexican officer, were found 
dispatches from Filisola to Santa Anna, so recently written, 
that the reader remarked : " The ink, sir, is hardly dry." The 
Texan commander now had the most positive assurance that 
Santa Anna was in command of the advance of the enemy. 
The second express contained the mail from the capital, filled 
with letters of congratulation, recognizing Santa Anna as 
Emperor of Mexico, &c. 

XXXYI. 

Mr. Rusk, the Secretary of War, and General Houston, im- 
mediately retired for a private conference. Very few words 
passed between them : the facts were before them, and they 
could come to but one decision. 

" We need not talk," said the General; " you think we ought 
to fight, and I think so too." The battle was decided on, and 
the fate of Texas was to be settled as soon as the enemy could 
be found. Shortly after this conference. General Houston was 
informed by Colonel Hockley that he had overheard an officer 
in command of a regiment saying to the men about him, over 
whom he supposed himself to possess the greatest influence, 



112 NOT A MOMENT TO BE LOST. 

"Boys, Houston don't intend to fight — follow me and you 
shall have enough of it." Houston at once remarked to Hock- 
ley, "I'll cure this mischief directly." He ordered the two 
Colonels to be sent for. 

" Gentlemen, have you rations of beef in the camp, for three 
days ?" 

" Yes sir." 

"You will then see that each man is supplied with three days' 
cooked rations, and hold the camp in readiness to march. We 
will see if we can find Santa Anna: good morning, gentlemen." 
Turning off with Hockley, Houston remarked, "There is no 
excuse for sedition now, if they wish to fight." At the same time 
orders were given to prepare for crossing the Bayou — that the 
army might commence their march upon the enemy the next 
morning. 

XXXYII. 

Night passed, and daylight came — but no preparations had 
been made for the march. The orders of the Commanding Offi- 
cer had been disregarded, and not a soldier was prepared with 
his rations. Not a moment was to be lost. Instead of taking 
his rest, as was his custom early in the morning, the General 
issued his orders himself to the men, and the camp was soon 
busy with the note of preparation. But it was nine o'clock 
before he could get his column under arms. When the army 
arrived at the Bayou, two miles from the encampment, they 
found the boat nearly filled with water. Houston at once dis- 
mounted, called for an axe, and went to hewing oars out of rails. 

XXXYIII. 

The passage was a difficult and perilous undertaking, and yet 
Houston was determined to make it that morning. The Bayou 



T ri/iityRf 



IS 





k 




v\l\ 




-. 




^ 


X 


, _ 




^ 


-'•, 




^ 




AN HOUR OF PERIL. 113 

was about fifty yards wide, and more than twenty feet deep. 
As the Pioneers, a small company, were going aboard, an acci- 
dent occurred which damaged the boat. Houston leaped aboard 
at once ; and his faithful horse, that he had left pawing on the 
bank, plunged in after his master, and swam to the opposite 
shore. A rope was soon constructed out of cabriestas (a rope 
of horse hair) and raw tugs, and fastened to both sides of the 
stream, which enabled the boat to make more rapid trips, and 
kept it from floating down the stream. The passage was now 
being made with great rapidity, but it was an hour of in- 
tense anxiety to the commander and his intelligent counsellor, 
the Secretary of War. General Houston had crossed and stood 
on one side, while Mr. Rusk remained on the other, both watch- 
ing the perilous movement of their little army, in whose brave 
hearts the hopes of Texas were. now all gathered. A single 
accident ! No one knew but the next moment the enemy's 
column might come in sight, and if they came up while that 
deep stream divided the army of Texas, the result would be fore- 
told before it happened. 

XXXIX. 

Half the army had now passed, and it was the moment of the 
deepest peril. The boat was giving way ; four strong men were 
bailing out the water continually. The body of cavalry was 
now to be risked. They were goaded to plunge into the deep 
stream, and they at once disappeared. But they rose again in 
their strength and strained for the steep bank. They reached it, 
and when they struck the solid ground, they sprang from the 
water and shook their tired limbs. The passage was made. 
Mr. Rusk went over on the last boat. It was an affecting spec- 
tacle to see these two brave men seize each other's hands when 
they met on the left bank of the stream ; and it is not difficult to 



114 R E M E M B E R T H E A L A M . 

believe what is iodeed said, that the same expression of grati- 
tude fell from their lips together — " Thank God — we are at last 
safely over." While the lines were forming, General Houston 
drew from his pocket a scrap of paper, and with a pencil (here 
was his only portfolio) wrote the following letter. 

Camp at Harrisburg, April l^th, 1836. 
To Colonel Rusk, in the Field. 

This morning we are in preparation to meet Santa Anna. It is the only 
chance of saving Texas. From time to time I have looked for reinforce- 
ments in vain. The Convention's adjourning to Harrisburg struck panic 
throughout the country. Texas could have started at least four thousand 
men. We will only be about seven hundred to march, besides the camp 
guard. But we go to conquest. It is wisdom growing out of necessity 
to meet and fight the enemy now. Every consideration enforces it. The 
troops are in fine spirits, and now is the time for. action. We will use our 
best efforts to fight the enemy to such advantage as will insure victory, 
though the odds are greatly against us. I leave the result in the hands 
of an all-wise God, and 1 rely confidently upon His providence. My 
country will do justice to those who serve her. The right for which we 
fight will be secured, and Texas shall be free. 

SAM HOUSTON, Commant)er-in-Chiep. 

(Certified copy from the Department of War, of the Republic of Texas.) 

XL. 

The lines were now formed, and Houston rode up and 
addressed the soldiers. Those who heard him, say that he 
made the most impassioned and eloquent appeal they ever 
listened to. The words seemed to flow along the lines like 
streams of electric fluid, and when he gave them for their watch- 
word, Remember the Alamo, it struck like a bolt of fire. The 
watchword had no sooner fallen from his lips, than it was caught 
up by every man in the army, and one simultaneous shout broke 
up into the sky — Revwnler the Alamo — Rememher the Alamo, 
was repeated, and the green islands of trees in the prairie sent 



THE MARCH OF HOUSTON'S ARMY. 115 

back the echo. The Secretary of War also spoke in the most 
happy and stirring manner. The men seemed inspired with the 
spirit of chivalry, and were impatient for the order of "March" 
to be given. 

XLI. 

The order came, and the column got under way. As it 
moved on over the prairie, the golden sun shone out full and 
clear from mid-heaven, as it never shines even in that beautiful 
climate, except after a long, cold rain. It seemed to be the sig- 
nal of God's approval, and they felt that the Heavens them- 
selves smiled on the struggle. 'No martial strains fell upon the 
ear — no rich bugle rang out its full, clear blast — no gorgeous ban- 
ners waved over the embattled host. Their march was not 
measured even by '' the thrilling fife, the pealing drum." There 
was little of the pomp or circumstance of glorious war ; but there 
was the firm purpose, the strained muscle, the compressed lip, 
and the heavy tramp of seven hundred men, determined to be 
free. 

XLII. 

In a narrow w^oodland not far from the stream, the army 
halted till sun-down, to avoid being seen in the open prairie. 
The column was now once more in motion, and a forced march 
made to a point not more than four or five miles distant from 
the ground which was to witness the main struggle. They 
took shelter under the covert of a grove off from the line of 
march, and the weary men laid down on their rifles to sleep for 
an hour. 

At daylight General Houston rose from the ground where he 
had been resting his head on a coil of rope used in dragging the 
artillery, and roused the camp by his well known three taps of 
the drum — for a reveille or tattoo had never been beaten from 



116 HOUSTON REACHES SAN JACINTO. 

the clay he took the command. Their artillery was never 
fired till it was fired in the face of the enemy. 

Pickets were advanced in every direction. The scouts sent 
on ahead soon returned with information which satisfied the 
Commander the enemy was not far distant. A small party had 
been fallen in with, and chase given to them — but they were well 
mounted, and effected their escape. On the return of the scout- 
ing party, the army halted to take refreshment, beeves were 
dressed, and the roastin2:-fires kindled. 



XLIII. 

But little progress had been made when, about seven o'clock 
that same morning, news came that the enemy was marching up 
from New Washington to cross the San Jacinto, which, if 
effected, would have enabled Santa Anna to carry desolation to 
the Sabine. Houston immediately ordered the line to be taken 
up for the crossing of the San Jacinto at Lynchburg. The 
issue of the entire struggle hinged on cutting off Santa Anna's 
retreat. The army saw it at once. The soldiers, with alacrity, 
abandoned their meat half-cooked, flew to their arms as one 
man, and as soon as the horses could be harnessed to the 
artillery, the march began. The column did not halt till the 
Ferry at the junction of Buffalo Bayou, and the San Jacinto 
was reached, where, to the great joy of the Texans, they learned 
that Santa Anna had not yet come up. Houston took posses- 
sion of a new boat which Santa Anna had forced some Ameri- 
cans to construct, and had it rowed up opposite the first grove 
on the Bayou. In the meantime, having arrived first, he could 
choose his own position, and he posted himself in a beautiful 
copse of trees which grew on a bend in the stream — and lay in a 
semicircular form on the margin of the Prairie. The trees and 



SANTA anna's BUGLES. lit 

the undergrowth enabled him to conceal his forces on the bank 
of the river, and plant his artillery on the brow of the copse. 

XLiy. 

The Texan army was now ready to go into battle at a moment's 
warning. But as the enemy had not yet come up, they again 
lighted their fires to complete their culinary operations, which 
had been so suddenly interrupted a few hours previously. But 
they had scarcely laid aside their arms and kindled their fires, 
before Houston's scouts came flying into the camp, with news 
that the Mexicans were in sight — and shortly after Santa Anna's 
bugles were heard over the Prairie, sounding the charge of the 
Mexican army. 

XLY. 

Whatever may have been said to the contrary, it is perfectly 
certain that Santa Anna knew the position of the Texan Gen- 
eral, and so far from his being surjprised by a discharge from 
the Texan artillery, he intended to surprise the enemy himself. 
Accordingly he opened his "brass twelve-pounder" upon the 
Texan position, intending to sustain the Artillery by his Infantry 
and Cavalry. But a well directed fire of grape-shot and canis- 
ter from Houston's two six-pounders drove back the Infantry 
column, which took shelter in a piece of timber within rifle shot 
of the left wing of the Texan army. In the meantime, the Mexi- 
can field-piece was kept playing, but with no other result than 
that Col. Neill, the gallant officer cTf the Artillery, received a 
grape-shot in his thigh, which disabled him from service. These 
events took place about ten o'clock in the morning. Col. Sher- 
man, of the 2d Regiment, requested of the Commander permis- 
sion, with a detachment, to drive the infantry from their covert. 
Houston, who Imd already decided (for reasons known then only 



118 THE TWO ARMIES MEET. 

to himself, but apparent enough the next day) his plan and time 
for action, complied with Col. Sherman's request, although he 
gave him positive orders not to advance beyond the piece of 
timber, or endanger the safety of his men. Houston directed 
him to take two companies of his Regiment. He preferred charg- 
ing on horseback. Houston gratified him. He was repulsed, 
and the circumstance produced no good effect upon the men. 

XLYI. 

General Houston, as appears from his dispatch, which we 
have already given, was resolved to choose his own time for fight- 
ing, and compensate for his want of numbers, by military skill 
and superior advantage in position. In other words, he was 
resolved to watch his opportunity, and ''fight the enemy to such 
advantage as would insure victory, though the odds were greatly 
against him." 

Some slight skirmishing followed, which ended in Santa 
Anna's retiring with his army to a swell in the Prairie, with tim- 
ber and water in his rear. His position was near the bank of the 
Bay of San Jacinto, about three-quarters of a mile from the 
Texan camp, where he commenced a fortification. 

XLYII. 

Houston was well satisfied with the business of the day ; and 
he declared to one of his confidential officers that evening, that, 
although he did not doubt he would that day have won a victory, 
if he had pursued the enemy, yet it would have been attended 
with a heavy loss of men — "While, to-morrow," said he, "I 
will conquer, slaughter, and put to Jiight the entire Mexican army 
— and it shall not cost me a dozen of my brave men." Those 
who clamored then, and have clamored since, about Houston's 



THE EVENING BEFORE THE BATTLE. 119 

losing SO fine an opportunity of fighting on the clay before the 
battle of San Jacinto, were, without doubt, brave men — but if 
they could have had their way at any one time after Houston 
took the command at Gonzalez, it is certain that it would 
have cost another Alamo or Goliad tragedy, and the day of San 
Jacinto would never have come. 

XLYIII. 

Evening came on, and Houston was about to withdraw his 
army from the field, to give them time for refreshment and repose, 
and to prepare for the following day. The flight of the enemy, 
in the first instance, and Santa Anna's rather precipitate retreat 
afterwards, had inspirited the Texan army. But Col. Sherman, 
who was determined to resort to a mse for the purpose of forc- 
ing General Houston into a general engagement that day — now 
pressed the General most earnestly for leave to advance with his 
Cavalry, and attempt the capture of the Mexican field-piece. 
Houston discountenanced the movement altogether — for he felt 
sure that his plan of giving battle to the enemy the next day 
would succeed, and he was reluctant to peril unnecessarily the 
life of a single man. He also had some reason to apprehend a 
similar result to that which followed Sherman's ill-advised move- 
ment that morning. But he importuned him till the General 
consented to have him go out with the Cavalry and reconnoitre- 
the enemy's position and forces ; but he peremptorily ordered 
him by no means to go within gun-shot of the Mexicans, nor 
court a conflict. Houston ordered out the artillery and the 
infantry battalion behind an island of timber, to remain con- 
cealed, and if the enemy should attack Sherman's command, to 
be in readiness to meet and check their advances. Sherman dis- 
appeared with his Cavalry behind the timber the enemy had 
occupied in tlie morning, and Houston and his staff" awaited the 



120 TRUTH AND ITS POWER. 

result, utterly ignorant of the ruse of Sherman to force the 
Texan commander into a general engagement, and therefore 
unconscious of their imminent peril. 

XLIX. 

The reconnoitering party had hardly disappeared, before the 
sound of firing in that direction was heard. In a single moment 
a susj^icion of Sherman's real design flashed over Houston's 
mind ; he mounted his horse and rode straight to the scene of 
action. He met Col. Sherman coming in. Although he had 
not succeeded in perilling the entire army by forcing them into 
a general engagement, yet he had succeeded in sacrificing the 
life of the brave Trask, and disabling the intrepid Woodliff, both 
of whom were now being borne back. Houston was incensed, 
for all this had been done in direct violation of his orders, and 
two of his Spartan soldiers borne bleeding by, were the only 
fruits that had followed. Gren. Foote's History (vol. ii. p. 301) 
declares that this was " a bold and well-conceived ruse to delude 
the Commander-in-Chief into a conflict, in spite of the monitions 
of his cooler judgment," though Sherman has since had the 
effrontery to declare that Gen. Houston sent him to be cut off! 
This would seem rather a singular charge, without remember- 
ing the circumstances, since Houston had lost neither a man nor 
a beast in his retreat to the Brazos, or in his advance to San 
Jacinto ; and on the night before the battle, he certainly had no 
men to spare. We only allude to the circumstance, however, as 
a fair sample of the countless calumnies which disappainted and 
factious men have heaped upon the name of Houston. The best 
way to kill falsehood is to publish plain truth — and we shall not 
trouble ourselves to deny in detail the thousand and one false 
statements which have been published against the Texan 
Senator. 



THE CAMP OF THE MEXICANS. 121 

L. 

The Texan army now retired to their camp, and refreshed 
themselves for the first time in two days. " The enemy in the 
meantime extended the right flank of their infantry, so as to 
occupy the extreme point of a skirt of timber on the bank of 
the San Jacinto, and secured their left by a fortification about 
five feet high, constructed of packs and baggage, leaving an 
opening in the centre of their breastwork, in which their artil- 
lery was placed — the cavalry upon the left wing." (Extract 
from Gen. H.'s official report.) 

Such was the position of the Mexican army, and they main- 
tained it till the charge was made the next day. 



122 THE NIGHT BEFORE THE BATTLE. 



SECTION EIGHTH. 

THE HERO OF SAN JA(3lNT0. 
I. 

During the entire presence of the enemy, on the day that 
witnessed the first meeting of the hostile armies, Houston had 
remained on horseback, exposed to their artillery, as a target. 
Branches were cut down over his head by cannon balls, and one 
shot struck the bit of his horse's bridle. After he had doubled 
the vigilance of his encampment, to render surprise impossible, 
he was prevailed on by his staff to take some rest, for he had 
scarcely eaten or slept for several days. It was now evening 
twilight, and the men were enjoying a hasty repast of the beef 
they had found so difficult to cook. 

Houston laid himself down under an old oak, with the coil of 
the artillery rope for his pillow. From the day he took com- 
mand of the army, he had never been known to have one hour's 
sound rest. His only time of repose had been after four o'clock 
in the morning, when he beat three taps on the drum, which he 
had done every morning till that day. At four o'clock, the 
line was always formed, and every man kept under arms till ^ 
daylight. He then lay down, and got what rest he could till 
the men had taken their breakfast, and were ready to march. 
In one of his letters to Mr. Rusk, during this period, in speaking 
of the solicitude he suffered, he says : "I will do the best I can ; 
but, be assured, the fame of Jackson could never compensate 




OF 

J A C 

AA. Houston's Camp. BB. Barleson's 
Kesriment. CC. Artillery and Regulars 
DD. Sherman's Recrinient. FF Islands 
of Timl)er. GG. Santa Anna's Camp. 
11. 400 men under Almonte. IIII. 1400, 
main Army under Santa Anna. 



THE MORNING OF SAN JACINTO. 123 

me for my anxiety and mental pain." All this suffering arose 
from uncertainty. He had expected troops and supplies, and 
waited for them in vain. The fall of the Alamo, and the 
massacre of Fannin's command, had dispirited his men, and 
caused desertions. The Government itself had fled from the 
scene of danger, and consternation had spread through Texas ; 
he was in a new country, without the means of subsistence or 
transport ; his men were but half clad and half armed ; he was 
in the neighborhood of a powerful army, whose picket-guards 
outnumbered fill the men in his camp, and he could decide 
neither the day nor the scene of battle. He had slept on the 
wet ground, without covering ; his only dress was the garb of a 
hunter, and his food only kept him alive. 

It is not strange, therefore, when the harrowings of suspense 
were over, and in the presence of the enemy, he had posted his 
faithful guards and fixed his iron purpose, that this man could 
lie down and sleep calmly and profoundly throughout the entire 
night. But he was probably the only man in that camp over 
whose mind flitted no anxious vision. 



II. 

The night which preceded the bloody slaughter of San Jacinto, 
rolled anxiously away, and brightly broke forth the morning of 
the last day of Texan servitude. Before the first grey lines shot 
up the East, three strange taps of a drum were heard in the 
camp, and *T00 soldiers sprang to their feet as one man. The 
camp was busy with the soldier-lmm of preparation for battle; 
but in the midst of it all, Houston slept on calmly and pro- 
foundly. The soldiers had eaten the last meal they were to 
eat till they had won their independence. Tliey were under 
arms, ready for the struggle. 



124' THE MORNING OF THE BATTLE. 

III. 

At last the glorious sun came up over the Prairie, without a 
single cloud. It shone full and clear in the face of the Hero, 
and it waked him to battle. He sprang to his feet, and ex- 
claimed, " the sun of Austerlitz has risen again." His face was 
calm, and for the first time in many weeks, every shade of trou- 
ble had moved away from his brow. He ordered his Commis- 
sary General, Col. John Forbes, to provide two good axes, and 
then sent for Deaf Smith. He took this faithful and intrepid 
man aside, and ordered him to conceal the axes in a safe place 
near by, where he could lay his hands on them at a moment's 
warning, and not to pass the lines of the sentinels that day with- 
out his special orders, nor to be out of his call. 

IV. 

Morning wore away, and about nine o'clock, a large body of 
men was seen moving over a swell of the prairie in the direction 
of Santa Anna's camp. They were believed to be a powerful 
force which had come to join the Mexicans, and the spectacle pro- 
duced no little excitement in the Texan lines. Houston saw it 
at a glance, and quelled the apprehension by coolly remarking, 
that " they were the same men they had seen the day before — 
they had marched round the swell in the prairie and returned in 
sight of the Texan camp to alarm their foe, with the appearance 
of an immense reinforcement — for it was very evident Santa 
Anna did not wish to fight. But it was all a ruse de guerre 
that could be easily seen through — a 7}iere Mexican trickJ^ 

Y. 

All this did very well, and yet Houston, of course, had quite 
a different notion on the subject. He sent Deaf Smith and a 



A COUNCIL OF WAR. 125 

comrade, with confidential orders, as spies on their rearward 
march. They soon returned, and reported publicly that " the 
General was right — it was all a humbug." A few minutes after, 
Deaf Smitli whispered quite another story in the private ear of 
the commander. The enemy seen was a reinforcement of 540 
men, under Gen. Cos, who had heard Santa Anna's cannon the 
day before on the Brazos, and come on by forced marches to 
join his standard. But the secret was kept till it did no harm 
to reveal it. 

At this juncture, a council of war, consisting of six field offi- 
cers was called, at their suggestion. The General in Chief, 
seated on the grass beneath a post oak tree, submitted the pro- 
position whether they should attack the enemy in his position, 
or whether they should wait for him to attack them in theirs ? 
The two juniors in rank were in favor of attack, but the four 
seniors objected, alleging that such a movement as charging a 
disciplined army in position by a raw soldiery, advancing in an 
open prairie, without the cover of artillery, and with only two 
hundred bayonets, was an unheard-of thing. The council was 
dismissed. The troops were sounded as to an attack, and were 
found to be favorable, and the General at once determined, on 
his own responsibility, to give battle. 

A proposition was made to the General to construct a floating 
bridge over Buffalo Bayou, " which might be used in the event 
of danger." Houston ordered his Adjutant and Inspector Ge- 
nerals and an Aide to ascertain if the necessary materials could 
be obtained. They reported that by tearing down a house in 
the neighborhood, they could. "We will postpone it awhile at 
all events," was Houston's reply. 

YI. 

In the meantime, he had ordered Deaf Smith to report to him, 



126 HOUSTON BRINGS ON THE BATTLE. 

with a companion, well mounted. He retired with them to the 
spot where the axes had been deposited in the morning. Taking 
one in either hand, and examining them carefully, he handed 
them to the two trusty fellows, saying, " Now, my friends, take 
these axes, mount, and make the best of your way to Yince's 
bridge; cut it down, and burn it up, and come back like eagles, 
or you will be too lafS for the day." This was the bridge over 
which both armies had crossed In their march to the battle- 
ground of San Jacinto, and it cut off all chance of escape for 
the vanquished. 

" This," said Deaf Smith, in his droll way, " looks a good 
deal like fight, General." 

VII. 

The reader will not fail to notice the difference between 
Houston's calculations of the results of that day, and those of 
some of his officers. They bethought themselves of building a 
new bridge — he of cutting down and burning up the only bridge 
in the neighborhood. The fact was, Houston was determined 
his army should come off victorious that day, or leave their 
bodies on the field. 

YIII. 

The day was now wearing away ; it was three o'clock in the 
afternoon, and yet the enemy kept concealed behind his breast- 
works, and manifested no disposition to come to an engagement. 
Events had taken just such a current as Houston expected and 
desired, and he began to prepare for battle. 

In describing his plan of attack, we borrow the language of 
his official report, after the battle was over. *' The 1st llegi- 
ment, commanded by Col. Burleson, was assigned the centre. 
The 2d Regiment, under the command of Col. Sherman, formed 



THE SLAUGHTER. 121 

the left wing of the army. The artillery, under the special com- 
mand of Col. George W. Hockley, Inspector-general, was 
placed on the right of the 1st Regiment, and four companies of 
infantry, under the command of Lieut. Col. Henry Millard, sus- 
tained the artillery upon the right. Our cavalry, sixty-one in 
number, commanded by Col. Mirabeau B. Lamar, placed on our 
extreme right, completed our line. Our cavalry was first dis- 
patched to the front of the enemy's left, for the purpose of 
attracting their notice, whilst an extensive island of timber 
afforded us an opportunity of concentrating our forces and 
displaying from that point, agreeably to the previous design of 
the troops. Every evolution was performed with alacrity, the 
whole advancing rapidly in a line, and through an open prairie, 
without any protection whatever for our men. The artillery 
advanced and took station within two hundred yards of the 
enemy's breastwork." 

IX. 

Those who expect a minute and accurate account of this 
engagement, from the writer, or any one else, must be disap- 
pointed ; for no such description can ever be written. It was a 
slaughter, more than a hatth. We can only give the reader au 
idea of the position of both armies when the engagement began 
— fill up the interval of the next few minutes with blood, and 
smoke, and cries, and slaughter, and then tell the almost incre- 
dible result. The two armies w^ere now drawn up in complete 
order. There were TOO Texans on the field, and Santa Anna's 
troops numbered over eighteen hundred. Houston had informed 
Mr. Rusk of the plan of the battle, and he approved of it as 
perfect. The Secretary, it is true, had never been a soldier — he 
understood little of military evolutions or the discipline of an 
army ; — but Houston knew he carried a lion-heart in his bosom^ 



128 THE CHARGE. 

and he assigned him the command of the left wing. The Gene- 
ral of course led the centre. 



Everything was now ready, and every man at his post waiting 
for the charge. The two six-pounders had commenced a well- 
directed fire of grape and canister, and they shattered bones and 
baggage where they struck. The moment had at last come. 
Houston ordered the charge, and sounded out the war cry, 
Remeaiber the Alamo. These magic words struck the ear of 
every soldier at the same instant, and " the Alamo !" " the 
Alamo !" went up from the army in one wild scream, which sent 
terror through the Mexican host. At that moment a rider 
came up on a horse covered with mire and foam, swinging an 
axe over his head, and dashed along the Texan lines, crying 
out, as he had been instructed to do, '' I have cut down Vince's 
bridge — 71010 fight for your lives and remember the Alamo," — and 
then the solid phalanx, which had been held back for a moment 
at the announcement, launched forward upon the breastworks 
like an avalanche of fire. Houston spurred his horse on at the 
head of the centre column right into the face of the foe. 

XI. 

The Mexican army was drawn up in perfect order, ready to 
receive the attack, and when the Texans were within about 
sixty paces, and before they had fired a rifle, a general flash was 
seen along the Mexican lines, and a storm of bullets went flying 
over the Texan army. They fired too high, but several balls 
struck Houston's horse in the breast, and one ball shattered the 
General's ankle. The noble animal staggered for a moment, but 
Houston spurred him on. If the first discharge of the Mexi- 



THE DEATH STRUGGLE. 129 

cans had been well directed, it would have thinned the Texan 
ranks. But they pressed on, reserving their fire till each man 
could choose some particular soldier for his target : and before 
the Mexicans could reload, a murderous discharge of rifle balls 
was poured into their very bosoms. The Texan soldiers rushed 
on. They were without bayonets, but they converted their rifles 
into war-clubs and levelled them upon the heads of Santa 
Anna's men. Along the breastwork there was little more 
firing of muskets or rifles — it was a desperate struggle hand to 
hand. The Texans, when they had broken off their rifles at the 
breech, by smashing in the skulls of their enemies, flung them 
down, and drew their pistols. They fired them once, and having 
no time to reload, hurled them against the heads of their foes ; 
and then drawing forth their bowie-knives, literally cut theii' 
way through dense masses of living flesh. 

XII. 

It would be a gross mistake to suppose that the Mexicans 
played the coward that day — for they were slain by hundreds 
in the ranks where they stood when the battle began — but the 
fierce vengeance of the Texans could not be resisted. They 
fought as none but men can fight, when they are striking for 
their homes, their families and their dead kindred. The Mexi- 
can ofiicers and men stood firm for a time, but the Texans 
stamped on them as fast as they fell, and trampled the prostrate 
and the dying down with the dead, and clambering over the 
groaning, bleeding mass, plunged their knives into the bosoms 
of those in the rear. When they saw that the dreadful onset of 
their foe could not be resisted, they either attempted to fly, and 
were stabbed in the back, or fell on their knees to plead for 
mercy, crying, " me no Alamo .'" " me no Alamo !" *' me no AlamoP^ 
These unfortunate slaves of the Mexican tyrant had witnessed 

6* 



130 THE FATE OF THE FIVE HUNDRED. 

that brutal massacre of brave men, and now they could think of 
no other clahii for mercy, but the plea that they were not there: 
for they knew the day of vengeance for the Alamo had at last 
come. 

But before the centre breastwork had been carried, the right 
and left wings of the enemy had been put to the rout, or the 
slaughter. The Mexicans, however, not only stood their 
ground at first, but made several bold charges upon the 
Texan lines. 

XIII. 

A division of their Infantry, of more than five hundred men, 
made a gallant and well-directed charge, upon the Battalion 
of Texan Infantry, Seeing them hard pressed, by a force of 
three to one, the Commander-in-chief dashed between them and 
the enemy's column, exclaiming : — 

" Come on, my brave fellows, your General le'ads you." 
The BattaHon halted and wheeled into perfect order, like 
a veteran corps, and Houston gave the order to fire. If the 
guns of the Texans had all been moved by machinery, they 
could not have been fired nearer the same instant. There was 
a single explosion — the Battalion rushed through the smoke, and 
those who had not been prostrated by the bullets were struck 
down by the cleaving blows of uplifted, rifles ; and the levelled 
column was trampled into the mire together. Of the five 
hundred, only thirty-two lived, even to surrender as prisoners 
of war. 

XIY. 

In the meantime, although Houston's wound was bleeding 
profusely, and his dying horse could scarce stagger his way over 
the slain, yet the Commander-in-chief saw every movement of 



DEAF SMITH. 131 

his army, and followed the tide of battle as it rolled over the 
field. Wherever his eye fell, he saw the Mexicans staggering 
back under the resistless shock of his heroic soldiers. Regi- 
ments and Battalions, Cavalry and Infantry, horses and men, 
were hurled together ; and every officer and every man seemed 
to be bent upon a work of slaughter for himself. 



XY. 

The Mexican army had now been driven from their position, 
and were flying before their pursuers. Houston saw that the 
battle was won, and he rode over the field and gave his orders 
to stop the carnage if the enemy would surrender. But 
he had given the Alamo for their war-cry, and the magic 
word could not be recalled. The ghosts of brave men, massa- 
cred at Goliad and the Alamo, flitted through the smoke of 
battle, and the uplifted hand could not be stayed. 



XVI. 

" While the battle was in progress," says General Husk, 
" the celebrated Deaf Smith, although on horseback, was fight- 
ing with the infantry. When they had nearly reached the enemy, 
Smith galloped on ahead, and dashed directly up to the 
Mexican line. Just as he reached it, his horse stumbled and 
fell, throwing him on his head among the enemy. Having 
dropped his sword in the fall, he drew one of his belt-pistols, 
presented it at the head of a Mexican, who was attempting 
to bayonet him, and it missed fire. Smith then hurled the 
pistol itself at the head of the Mexican, and, as he staggered 
back, he seized his gun, and began his work of destruction. A 
young man, by the name of Robbins, dropped his gun in the 



132 THE DAY OF VENGEANCE. 

confusion of the battle, and happening to run directly in contact 
with a Mexican soldier who had also lost his musket, the 
Mexican seized Robbins, and both being stout men, rolled to 
the ground. But Robbins drew out his bowie-knife, and ended 
the contest by cutting the Mexican's throat. On starting out 
from our camp, to enter upon the attack, I saw an old man, by 
the name of Curtis, carrying two guns. I asked him what 
reason he had for carrying more than one gun. He answered : 
' D — n the Mexicans ; they killed my son and son-in-law in the 
Alamo, and I intend to kill two of them for it, or be killed 
myself.' I saw the old man again during the fight, and he told 
me 'he had killed his two men ; and if he could find Santa 
Anna himself he would cut out a razor-strap from his backj " 



XYII. 

Such was the day of vengeance. It was not strange that no 
invading army, however brave, could long withstand so dreadful 
an onset. "When the Mexicans were first driven from the 
point of woods where we encountered them," continues General 
Rusk, " their officers tried to rally them, but the men cried 
' It's no use, it's no use, there are a thousand Americans in the 
woods.' When Santa Anna saw Almonte's Division running 
past him, he called a drummer, and ordered him to beat his 
drum. The drummer held up his hands and told him he was 
shot. He called then to a trumpeter near him to sound his horn. 
The trumpeter replied that he, also, was shot. Just at that 
instant a ball from one of our cannon struck a man who was 
standing near Santa Anna, taking off one side of his head. 
Santa Anna then exclaimed, * D — n these Americans ; I believe 
they will shoot us all.' He immediately mounted his horse, and 
commenced his flight." 



THE FLIGHT OF SANTA ANNA. 133 

XVIII. 

The flight had nowlsecome universal. The Texans had left 
on the ground, where the battle began, more than their entire 
number, dying and dead ; and far away over the Prairie they 
were chasing the flying, and following up the slaughter. Mul- 
titudes were overtaken and killed as they were making their 
escape through the deep grass. The Mexican cavalry were well 
mounted, and after the event they struck deep their spurs into 
their fleet horses, and turned their heads towards Yince's 
Bridge. They were hotly pursued by the victors, and when the 
latter came up, the most appalling spectacle, perhaps, of the 
entire day, was witnessed. When the fugitive horsemen saw 
that the bridge was gone, some of them, in their desperation, 
spurred their horses down the steep bank ; others dismounted 
and plunged in the stream ; some were entangled in their 
trappings, and were dragged down with their struggling steeds ; 
others sunk at once to the bottom ; while those whose horses 
reached the opposite bank fell backwards into the river. In the 
meantime, while they were struggling with the flood, their 
pursuers, who had come up, were pouring down upon them 
a deadly fire, which cut off all escape. Horses and men, by 
hundreds, rolled down together ; the waters were red with 
their blood, and filled with their dying gurgles. The deep, 
turbid stream, was literally choked with the dead ! 

XIX. 

A similar spectacle was witnessed on the Southern verge of 
the Island of Trees, near the Mexican encampment, in the rear 
of the battle-ground. There was little chance of escape in this 
quarter, for a deep morass was to be passed ; and yet mul- 
titudes, in their desperation, had rushed to this spot as a forlorn 
hope. They had plunged into the mire and water with horses 



134 THE RETURN FROM THE FIELD. 

and mules, and, in attempting to pass, had been completely sub- 
merged ; every one who seemed likely to escape soon received a 
ball from the murderous aim of a practiced rifleman, and 
the morass was literally bridged over with carcasses of dead 
mules, horses, and men. 

XX. 

The conquerors rode slowly off from the field of fame, and the 
resting-place of the dead, and returned to the oak, at whose 
foot the hero of San Jacinto had slept till the " Sun of Auster- 
litz" had woke him that morning. All resistance to the arms 
of Texas ceased. The pursuers returned to the camp, where a 
command was left to guard the spoils taken from the enemy. 
As the Commander-in-Chief was riding across the field, the vic- 
torious soldiers came up in crowds, and slapping him rudely on 
the wounded leg, exclaimed — 

" Do you like our work to-day. General ?•' 

" Yes, boys, you have covered yourselves with glory, and I 
decree to you the spoils of victory ; I will reward valor. I only 
claim to share the honors of our triumph with you. I shall not 
take my share of the spoils." He did not. 

XXI. 

While he was giving his orders, after he reached the Texan 
encampment, and before he dismounted, General Rusk came - 
in and presented his prisoner Almonte. It was the first time 
these two men had ever met. This seemed to give a finishing 
stroke to the victory; and Houston, who was completely 
exhausted from fatigue and loss of blood, fell from his horse. 
Colonel Hockley caught him in his arms, and laid him at 
the foot of the oak. 



T«^ 



- \ h '-'7- 













THE SPOILS OF VICTORY. 135 

XXII. 

Thus ended the bloody day of Sau Jacinto — a battle that has 
scarcely a parallel in the annals of war. Its immediate fruits 
were not small — for the spoils were of great value to men who 
had nothing in the morning but the arms they carried, scanty, 
coarse clothing, and the determination to be free. About 900 
stand of English muskets (besides a vast number that were lost 
in the Morass and Bayou), 300 sabres, and 200 pistols, 3o0 
valuable mules, a hundred fine horses, a good lot of provisions, 
clothing, tents, and paraphernalia for officers and men, and 
twelve thousand dollars in silver, constituted the principal spoils. 

XXIII. 

But the booty was esteemed meaner than nothing, in com- 
parison with the great moral and political consequences that 
attended the victory. On that well-fought field Texan Inde- 
pendence was won. A brave, but an outraged people, in imi- 
tation of their fathers of the last age, had entrusted their cause 
to the adjudication of battle, and God took care of the issue. 
For our own part, we can find in the whole range of History no 
spectacle more sublime. It was not a struggle for the aggran- 
dizement of some military chieftain — nor was it a strife for 
empire — the soldiers, who marched under the " Lone Star" into 
that engagement, were free, brave, self-relying men. Some of 
them, indeed, had come from a neighboring Pvepublic, as Lafay- 
ette crossed the sea, to join in the struggles of freedom, but 
most of the Texan army were men who cultivated the soil they 
fought on, and had paid for it with their money or their labor. 
Hundreds of them had abandoned their fugitive wives to achieve 
everlasting freedom for their children. They were fighting for 
all that makes life worth having, or gives value to its pos- 
session. 



136 THE SUBLIMITY OF THE VICTORY. 

And when the victors laid themselves down to rest that night, 
and Heaven folded its blue curtains kindly around them, and 
they thought that their troubles and anxieties were over — that 
they could now return to the embrace of their happy families 
with the hope of a long and peaceful life of earnest and manly 
endeavor, and a quiet old age, when they should hold their 
grandchildrens on their knee, and tell them the story of the 
Woody day of San Jacinto — it is not strange that they felt more 
than compensated for all their privations and all their sufferings. 

XXIY. 

But the sublimity of the spectacle is lost, unless the eye has 
scope for a wider field of vision. There art events whose con- 
sequences can be measured by no estimate into whose calculation 
centuries do not come. If the historian of the Plymouth Colony 
could have lived a century longer, he might have perceived 
clearly what is now reduced only to a question of time, that 
from the day the Mayflower swung round to her mooring on the 
rock of Plymouth, the sceptre of the New World passed for 
ever into the im|5^rial hand of the Anglo-Saxon race. But for 
a long period this grand result seemed impossible, and he who 
should have proclaimed that it would one day take place, would 
have been called a dreamer. Spain and Portugal, France and 
England, had divided the Northern and Southern Hemisphere 
of the new-found World. But the French empire in America 
received a fatal shock when England wrested from it the 
Canadas in 11G3 ; and she afterwards lost by diplomacy what 
could not be wrested from her in battle. One dominion then dis- 
ajppearcd. 

XXV. 

At last, when it became apparent that even Englishmen in 



THE DOMINION OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 13t 

America could not develop their strength under British sway, 
the drama of 't6 began, and all that was valuable in the New 
Continent that belonged to England, became the heritage of her 
American children. This was the second great act. 

XXYI. 

In the meantime the powerful savage tribes, whose wigwams 
served as beacon fires to the earliest voyagers along the Atlan- 
tic coast, melted away before the steady advance of European 
population, and the Indian dominion passed away. 

XXYII. 

At last, the American people, — this new form of humanity, 
which concentrated in itself nearly all those qualities, which, in 
past times, had given empire to separate nations, began to cross 
the frontiers of that ancient power which, for three hundred 
years, had made the fair valley of the Montezumas the seat of 
their dominion. But this began in no encroachment — no inva- 
sion upon the rights or soil of a neighhoring State. Mexico, 
although she had caught enough of the all-pervading spirit of 
the Anglo-Saxon to rise and shake off the foul mantle of Span- 
ish despotism, had not vital energy enough left within herself to 
work out her own political regeneration. She had been too 
long bowed into the dust by the foreign tyrant — she had been 
too long steeped in the besotted bigotry of superstition — she 
had never thought or acted for herself — she had no clear per- 
ception of human rights — no intelligent idea of liberty. She 
did not know that a nation never can grow rich by abandoning 
the cultivation of the soil, and digging gold and silver from the 
mine — she could not understand why it was that six vigorous 
republics had grown up into power on the cold barren hills of 



138 WHY AMERICANS WENT TO TEXAS. 

New England, while she had loecome feeble and impoverished in 
the midst of the very garden of the world. And yet she believ- 
ed, if she could once introduce that northern population into her 
limits, she could borrow from them the secret of their magic 
power. Her statesmen were told that Xew Englanders, when 
they found they could not get their bread from their rocky, 
frozen soil, made commerce of stones and grew rich by exporting 
their granite, and lime, and cobble-stones, during the summer, 
and sent off ship-loads of their surplus water as soon as it froze 
in winter, albeit they had to find their market for it on the 
other side of the globe. These, said the Mexican statesmen, 
are the men we must get to colonize our vast garden-province 
of Texas — for we have for three centuries tried in vain to do It 
ourselves. 

XXYIII. 

So that fertile territory was thrown open to the people of the 
United States, and they were plied by all those motives of 
gain and pledges of protection which, in the mind of the pioneer 
settler, prove too strong for the allurements of home. A band 
of choice spirits, hardy, working men, who had been trained in 
the district schools of New York and New England, and 
cultivated their cold, ungrateful soil, were led out to find their 
new homes in the fair province of New Estramadura, where all 
nature was blushing under the purple light of the tropics. At 
their head went Stephen F. Austin ; one of those few men 
upon whose incorruptible, dauntless truth, a young nation finds 
it her salvation to repose. In his rare and great character, all 
that was lofty in the Cavalier and uncompromising in the 
Puritan was mingled. 

XXIX. 

He entered into his obligations with the Mexican Govern- 



SPAIN FADES FROM ANCIENT DOMINIONS. 139 

ment, and conducted all his negotiations and redeemed all his 
pledges, in good faith, For a time, Mexico stood by her 
engagements, and the infant colony struck its roots deep into 
the soil. At last Mexico discovered that the very qualities 
from which she promised herself so much advantage — the 
industry, the enterprise, the inventions of the new colonists, — 
were all owing to that intelligent love of liberty which she so 
little understood, and yet so much dreaded. She saw that men 
who had energy enough to be good settlers, where Spaniards 
had failed, had too much independence ever to be governed as 
Spaniards. But she found out her mistake only when it was 
too late to correct it. Like the ancient Britons, she had 
invited a superior race into her country, unconscious that her 
sceptre would one day be transferred to their hands. 

XXX. 

This was the point upon which the destiny of the old Spanish 
empire hinged. Mexico might now have borrowed from her 
new subjects the elements of an entire political regeneration. 
These colonists were not ambitious men — they went there only 
to cultivate the soil — but they had carried, of necessity, their 
civilization and love of liberty with them, and they could not 
brook the tyranny of Mexican Dictators. They went prepared 
to stand by the Federal Constitution of 1824, and up to the 2d 
of March, 1836, when the Declaration of Independence was 
signed, all the protests and discontent, all the demands and 
petitions of the Texans, were limited to a concession of the rights 
secured to all the States of Mexico by that Constitution ! 

XXXI. 

But Mexico was now under the sway of selfish, ambitious 



140 THE DESPOTISM OF MEXICO. 

military chieftains, who, in the struggle for supremacy, had 
trampled the Constitution of 1824 into the dust. And let it 
never be forgotten, that when the political agitations of Texas 
began, and the will of the entire people had been declared, all 
they asked for, and all they desired then, was to see the Constitution 
of 1824 preserved inviolate. But men, who are driven to the 
wall, and compelled to fight for life, sometimes fight for victory. 
Mr. Austin was then Commissioner to Mexico, and he went to 
the Capital with his memorial. His very appearance in that 
city with the prayer of his colony, that tl\e Mexicans would 
abide by their own Constitution, under whose solemn pledges 
he had led his people to their new home — was too bitter a sar- 
casm upon the corrupt tyrants who had trampled down that 
high compact, and he was plunged into a foul dungeon, where 
for many months he never saw a beam of sunshine, nor even the 
hand that fed him. 



XXXII. 

How was all this tampering with Anglo-Saxon men to end ? 
Who, that knows what plighted faith means, or has any notion 
of the obligations growing out of a political compact, will 
pretend to say that Texas was bound to submit to the decrees 
of a Dictator who had committed high treason against his 
government — treason for which he would have been brought to 
the block by the people of Mexico, had he not had 20,000 bayo- 
nets at his back. The Federal compact had now been broken, 
and ))y the highest law of nations, every State of the Union not 
only had the right, but was bound in duty to take care of itself. 
An immediate Declaration of Independence would have been 
justified by the world. But Texas still remonstrated, and still 
prayed. All she loanted, icas a return to the Constitution of 
1824. But that Constitution lay bleeding under the hoofs of 



A JUSTIFICATION OF TEXAS. 141 

Santa Anna's battle-horse, and his myrmidon soldiers had 
possession of the Capital. War was proclaimed against Texas 
bv Mexico, becaitse she would not acknowledge a Dictator — 
and an invading army was sent across the Rio Grande, to *' lay 
waste the infant colony, and slaughter all its inhabitants J'^ 

XXXIII. 

This was the position of Texas — and if those men were not 
justiJBed in defending their wives and children from slaughter, 
and their dwellings from fire, there never was a people who had 
a right to smite the arm of a tyrant. The heroes of '16 rebelled 
against a constitutional government, with its parliament and 
king, because they were required to pay a stamp tax. The 
Texans never rebelled at all. They would not bow to a Dictator 
who had stamped the free Constitution of his country under his 
feet ; — and now a war of extermination was proclaimed. 
Seven hundred brave men were slaughtered and burned to 
ashes, after they had, under a solemn pledge that their lives 
should be spared, surrendered themselves prisoners of war. 

The red flame of exterminating war was now rolling over the 
very bosom of the young Republic, whose only crime was her 
loyalty to the Federal Constitution of Mexico. 

XXXIY. 

At last the slaughter-day of San Jacinto came, and the 
Texans who went into battle, knew that every one of them 
would have been put to death in cold blood, if the enemy had 
conquered. Such had been the case at Goliad and the Alamo, 
and such was the watchword of the advancing Dictator. But 
high over the smoke and screams of the field of San Jacinto, we 
seem to see, and do see, the hand of the God of Freedom and 



142 time's noblest offspring. 

of Vengeance. His purposes were unknown to man, but they 
could not be overthrown. The wing of his Almighty Provi- 
dence had sheltered the bark of the Pilgrims, and his strong 
arm had been thrown around the rude homes of Plymouth. 
Over the deliberations of the Provincial Congress, He again pre- 
sided, and in the Declaration of Independence His will was 
done. And now, having decreed, that the broad prairies and 
shining rivers of that vast land, which had groaned under the 
tramp of despotic power, and been blasted by the withering 
blight of superstition for ages, should be regenerated by a nobler 
and better race. He had begun to reveal his great purposes. 

XXXY. 

The last act of this drama, which had begun on the shore of 
Kew England, was to be opened on the field of San Jacinto. 
And although the sun gleamed on the armor of eighteen 
hundred Mexicans that morning, and when the Commander's 
bugles sounded the charge, he was, to all human appearances, 
sure of a victory ; yet the result proved that the battle is not 
always to the strong — that " God rules among the nations of the 
earth, and giveth its kingdoms to whomsoever He will." A 
decree had gone forth against that army, and against the long- 
abused reign of Spanish power in Mexico — " thy dominion is 
taken from thee." 

And the future historian will, one day, open his scroll by 
announcing that when the sun went down over the groans and 
the slaughter of San Jacinto, the dominion of Mexico passed 
for ever away. Such had been the first four acts of the drama 
of the New World. 

" The Fifth, then closed the Drama with the day, 
Time's noblest oflfspring was the last." 



THE MORNING AFTER THE VICTORY. 143 



SECTION NINTH. 

THE VICTOR AND THE CAPTIVE. 
I. 

The battle of Independence had been fought. Seven hundred 
soldiers had met nearly three times their number, and come off 
victorious. Six hundred and thirty men were left dead on the 
field ; among them were, one general officer, four colonels, two 
lieutenant-colonels, seven captains, and twelve lieutenants. 
Multitudes had perished in the morass and the bayous. Of the 
surviving, upwards of two hundred and eighty were wounded, 
and there were nearly eight hundred prisoners. Only seven 
men are known to have escaped from the field. And yet, 
incredible as it may seem, this bloody engagement had cost the 
Texans the lives of only seven men, and less than thirty had 
been wounded. It was incredible, and when the Commander- 
in-Chief awoke the next morning, and heard the facts, he asked, 
"Is this so, or is it only my dream ?" 

II. 

At ten o'clock in the morning, Gen. Houston sent a detach- 
ment of men to bury the enemy's dead who had fallen in battle ; 
but decomposition had taken place so rapidly, the troops 
returned aiid reported they could not execute his order ! This 
extraordinary circumstance excited the greatest surprise, and 
;t-he Mexican prisoners accounted for it by resolving it, like the 



144 SANTA ANNA HOUSTON'S PRISONER. 

defeat of the previous day, into " a malignant blast of des- 
tiny." 

III. 

In the meantime, a large number of Texans were scouring the 
prairie throughout the day, and bringing in prisoners. The 
grass was everywhere four or five feet high, and those who had 
not been taken the day before, were now crawling away on 
their hands and knees, hoping thus to effect their escape. 
Santa Anna had not yet been taken, but the victors were 
scouring every part of the field in search of the Dictator. " You 
will find the Hero of Tampico," said Houston, " if you find him 
at all, making his retreat on all fours, and he will be dressed as 
bad at least as a common soldier. Examine closely every man 
you find." 

lY. 

Lieutenant Sylvester, a volunteer from Cincinnati, was riding 
over the prairie, on a fine horse, about three o'clock in the after- 
noon, when he saw a man making his way towards Yince's 
bridge. The moment he found himself pursued, the fugitive 
fell down in the grass. Sylvester dashed on in that direction, 
and his horse came very near trampling him down. The man 
sprang to his feet, and apparently without the slightest sur- 
prise, looked his captor full in the face. He was disguised in a 
miserable rustic dress. He wore a skin-cap, a round jacket, 
and pantaloons of blue domestic cotton, with a pair of coarse 
soldier's shoes. But his face and his manners bespoke, too 
plainly, that he belonged to a different class than his garb 
betokened; and underneath his coarse disguise, Sylvester saw 
that he wore a shirt of the finest linen cambric. "You are an 
officer, I perceive, sir," said the horseman, raising his cap 



HOUSTON RECEIVES SAXTAANNA. 145 

politely. " No, soldier," was his reply ; and he drew out a 
letter ia Spanish, addressed to Almonte. "When he saw there 
was no hope of escape, he inquired for General Houston. By 
this time, Sylvester had been joined by several of his comrades, 
and mounting his prisoner behind him, they rode off together, on 
the same horse, to the camp, several miles distant. As he passed 
the Mexican prisoners, they exclaimed with the greatest sur- 
prise as they lifted their caps, ^' El Fresidente .'" 

V. 

In a single moment, the news spread through the camp that 
Gen. Santa Anna was a prisoner, and the Dictator was taken 
to Houston. The General was lying on the ground, and having 
slept little during the night, in consequence of his wound, had 
now fallen into a doze. Santa Anna came up behind him, and 
took his hand. Houston roused himself, and turning over, 
gazed up in the face of the Mexican, who extended his left arm, 
and laying his right hand on his heart, said, "I am General 
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, President of the Mexican Repub- 
lic, and I claim to he your 'prisoner of ivar^ Houston waved his 
hand to a box, — for it was the only seat in tlie camp — and 
asked his prisoner to be seated. He then sent for Almonte, who 
spoke English perfectly, and requested him to act as interpreter. 



VI. 

In the meantime, Santa Anna had taken his seat, and glanc- 
ing his keen eye occasionally around the camp, with a timid 
expression, pressed the sides of his breasts with both hands, and 
gave two or three half-suppressed groans, like a man who was 
suffering deep pain. An interesting incident took place about 
this time, which is tlius related by Gen, Rusk : "At the time 
Santa Anna was brought into our camp, I was walking with 



146 THE MORTIFIED MEXICAN DICTATOR. 

young Zavala. (The reader will recognize ia this youthful 
character, the son of the noble and venerable Zavala, who dis- 
tinguished himself as the friend of Texan independence.) We 
approached him together. Santa Anna recognized young 
Zavala at once, and advanced to meet him with great apparent 
cordiality, uttering many expressions of kindness, such as are 
customary among the Mexicans on such occasions, several of 
which I remember. Among other things, he exclaimed " Oh ! 
my friend, my friend, the son of my early friend ;" with which, 
and other exclamations in the same strain, he embraced young 
Zavala, with high indications of apparent feeling, and I think, 
dropping a tear. Young Zavala returned his greeting with 
that deference which would have been due to his former rank 
and power ; but at the same time, emitting from his counten- 
ance an expression I have scarcely seen equalled on any occasion. 
His look seemed to wither Santa Anna, and staring him full in 
the face, he replied immediately, with great modesty, 'It has 
been so, sir.' Santa Anna evinced plainly that be was much 
mortified." 

YII. 

Almonte approached his captive General with evident respect 
and grief, and the following conversation took place between the 
two commanders ; Houston, in the meantime, lying on the 
ground, resting on his elbow. Great pains has been taken to 
get as nearly as possible the exact words us.ed by the speakers, 
and those who were present at the interview, have assured us, 
that all here related they do remember, and they recollect 
nothing else of importance. 

VIII. 

Santa Anna (after embracing Almonte, and recovering per- 



*». 



o i 







SANTA ANNA MEETS HOUSTON. 147 

fectly from his embarrassment, rose, and advancing with the air 
of one born to command, said to General Houston — "That man 
may consider himself born to no common destiny, who has con- 
quered the Napoleon of the West ; and it now remains for him 
to be generous to the vanquished." 

Houston. — " You should have remembered that at the Alamo." 

S. A. — " You must be aware that I Vi^as justified in my course 
by the usages of war. I had summoned a surrender, and they 
had refused. The place was then taken by storm, and the usa- 
ges of war justified the slaughter of the vanquished." 

H. — " That was the case once, but it is now obsolete. Such 
usages among civilized nations have yielded to the influences of 
humanity." 

iS. A. — " However this maybe, I was acting under the orders 
of my Government." 

H. — "Why, YOU are the Government of Mexico," 

iS. A. — " I have orders in my possession commanding me so to 
act." 

H. — " A Dictator, sir, has no superior." 

S. A. — " I have orders. General Houston, from my Govern- 
ment, commanding me to exterminate every man found in arms in 
the province of Texas, and treat all such as pirates ; for they 
have no Government, and are fighting under no recognized flag. 
This will account for the positive orders of my Government." 

H. — " So far as the first point is concerned, the Texans flatter 
themselves they have a Government already, and they will pro- 
bably be able to make a flag. T5ut if you feel excused for your 
conduct at San Antonio, you have not the same excuse for the 
massacre of Colonel Fannin's command. They had capitulated 
on terms proffered by yonr General. And yet, after the capitu- 
lation, they were all perfidiously massacred, without the privilege 
of even dying with arms in their hands." 

Those who were present say that when Houston came to speak 



148 CROSS EXAMINATION OF SANTA ANNA. 

of the Goliad tragedy, it seemed impossible for him to restrain 
his indignation. His eye flashed hke a wild beast's, and in his 
gigantic effort to curb in his wrath, cold sweat ran off from his 
brow in streams. 

S. A. — " I declare to you, General (laying his hand on his 
heart), that I was not apprised of the fact that they had 
capitulated. General Urrea informed nae that he had conquered 
them in a battle, and under this impression I ordered their 
execution." 

H. — " I 1,-now, General, that the men had capitulated." 
iS. A. — '' Then I was ignorant of it. And after your assevera- 
tion I should not have a shadow of doubt, if it were not that 
General Urrea had no authority whatever to receive their capititr 
lation. And if the day ever comes that I can get Urrea into 
my hands, I will execute him for his duplicity in not giving me 
information of the facts." 



IX. 

Here the conversation was suspended for a while, and Santa 
Anna requested a small piece of opium. It was ordered by 
Houston, who asked him if he w^ould desire his marquee and 
luggage, and the attendance of his aides and servants. Santa 
Anna thanked him very politely, and said " it would make him 
very happy, since they were proffered by his captor." 

While the order was being given, Almonte manifested a 
disposition to continue the conversation with Houston. After 
remarking to the Texan General that fortune had indeed 
favored him, he asked why he had not attacked the Mexicans 
the first day the armies met. " You had reason to suppose we 
should be reinforced. And yet if you had risked a battle that 
day you would have had another story to tell, perhaps, for our 
men were then ready to fight, and so anxious for the battle 



THE SAN JACINTO CORN. 149 

to come on, that we could hardl}^ keep tbem in their ranks. 
Why did you wait till the next morning, General ?" 

*' Well," replied Houston, " I see I was right. I kneio you 
expected I should bring on the battle that day, and were 
consequently prepared for it. Now if I must be questioned by 
an inferior officer in the presence of his General, I will say that 
was just the reason why I did not fight ; and besides, I thought 
there was no use in having two bites at one cherry." After 
some remark of Almonte, which irritated Houston, and which, 
in the opinion of all who heard it, ill-befitted the occasion, he 
said — " You have come a great way to give us a great deal of 
trouble — and you have made the sacrifice of the lives of a great 
many brave men necessary." '' Oh," flippantly replied Al- 
monte, "what of six or eight hundred men ! And, from 
all accounts, only half a dozen of your hrave men have fallen." 

Houston replied : " We estimate the lives of our men, I per- 
ceive, somewhat higher than you do," and he gave him a look 
which seemed to say, "taunt me again, and you don't live an 
hour." Almonte very politely changed his tone. " You talk 
about reinforcements, sir," said Houston, raising himself up, " it 
matters not how many reinforcements you have, sir, you never 
can conquer freemen," And taking from his pocket an ear of 
dry coru which he had carried for four days, only a part of it 
being consumed, he held it up and said, " Sir, do you ever 
expect to conquer men who fight for freedom, when their General 
can march four days with one ear of corn for his rations ?" 

X. 

The exhibition of the ear of corn stirred up all the enthusiasm 
of the Texan soldiers, and they- gathered round their General, 
and asked him to allow them to divide the corn. " We'll plant 
it," said they, " and call it the Houston corn." " Oh, yes, my 



150 AMERICANS CAN NEVER B E C N Q U E R ED . 

brave fellows," said the General, smiling, "take it along if you 
care anything about it, and divide it among you — give each one 
a kernel as far as it will go, and take it home to your own 
fields, where I hope you may long cultivate the arts of 
peace as nobly as you have shown yourselves masters of the art 
of war. You have achieved your independence — now see if you 
cannot make as good farmers as you have proved yourselves 
gallant soldiers. You may not call it Houston corn ; but call 
it San Jacinto corn — for then it will remind you of your own 
bravery." It is also said that in one of his dispatches that day 
to the people of the Sabine, the General said to those who had 
fled from their homes, " return and plant corn." The soldiers 
distributed their corn, and it now waves over a thousand green 
fields in Texas. 

XI. 

Santa Anna had become interested in the conversation, and 
Almonte related to him what had been said. The Mexican 
General seemed to be transported with rage, and he cursed 
Almonte for losing the battle. He was mortified beyond 
measure to think that his large army, perfectly armed and 
munitioned, with ofificers whose camp was filled with every 
luxury, should have been conquered by an undisciplined band of 
raw troops, incompletely armed, and whose officers were desti- 
tute of most, even, of the necessaries of life. It is worthy of 
remark, also, that Santa Anna afterwards said " that this was 
the first moment he had ever understood the American character ; 
and that what he had witnessed, convinced him that Americans 
never could be conquered." 

XII. 

Santa Anna's marquee was set near the spot where Houston 



SANTA ANNA TO BE SHOT. 151 

was lying. His trunks were not examined, nor any portion of 
his baggage molested. The Texan General knew that there 
was hardly a man in his army who did not wish to see Santa 
Anna expiate his crimes with his blood, and very few believed 
it would be possible even for Houston to protect him from assas- 
sination. But he knew the eyes of the civilized world would 
be turned upon the Texan camp, and that however guilty 
Santa Anna may have been, the name of Texas would be given 
over to execration if any violence was offered to the Captive. 
He therefore took the necessary precautions to see that not only 
no violence, but no indignity, should be offered to his prisoner. 
The course he took in this matter entitles him to the regard of 
mankind. The feeling that prevailed in the army could not be 
mistaken, and various circumstances have come 'to our know- 
ledge which serve to illustrate not only Houston's extreme vigi- 
lance, but his superior shrewdness in detecting insubordination, 
and his address in putting it down. One example we will 
allude to. 

XIII. 

An ofScer had resolved to shoot Santa Anna, and had pre- 
pared himself for the work. His design, however, he had kept 
to himself, and Houston could have had no intimation of it from 
any quarter. But as the officer was passing Houston on the 
day of the night he had fixed for the execution of his 
purpose, the General, who saw something wrong in his manner, 
beckoned him to approach. He conversed with him, privately 
and confidentially, on the subject of his fears ; and after depict- 
ing the horrible consequences that would follow Santa Anna's 
assassination, told the officer that he had made him his confi- 
dant in the matter, because he knew he would be more likely 
than any other man in the camp, to detect any murderous 
scheme projected, and he relied on his vigilance. The officer 



152 HOUSTON'S MAGNANIMITY TO SANTA ANNA. 

gave him his pledge he would act on his suggestion, and, more- 
over, declared that Santa Anna should never be assassinated 
while ht was in the camp. He was as good as his word : and 
yet he afterwards declared he had, at the very time, the arms on 
his person with which he had sworn to kill Santa Anna. Such 
was one of the thousand expedients Houston was obliged to 
resort to, to maintain discipline over those wayward, reckless 
men. Xo one knew how he did it, and yet it passed into a 
proverb that Houston was the only man in the world that could 
have kept the army in subjection, or achieved the independence of 
Texas, or preserved it after it was won. Houston, therefore, exer- 
cised the keenest vigilance over the safety of his prisoner, and 
treated him as a guest and a gentleman, rather than as a 
captive. 

XIV. 

ISiight came. The guard was so disposed as to include Santa 
Anna's marquee, and he slept on his camp-bed with every com- 
fort he could have had if he had been the victor ; while, near 
by him, Houston lay upon the earth — his wonted bed in camp 
— with no respite from the intense agony of his wound. The 
ball had entered about one inch above the ankle joint, shatter- 
ing the bone, and severing the muscles and arteries. It pros- 
trated him for months, during which time he was worn down by 
fever and pain to the shadow of a man. 

XY. 

As Houston and Rusk were riding side by side from the 
battle-field, returning to camp, they discovered two ravens 
hovering over the field in the smoke which lingered over the 
battle scene. Some of the men proposed to shoot them, as they 
were near the earth. Houston said, "Xo — don't shoot them — it 



SANTA ANNA AND HOUSTON. 153 

is a good omen. Their heads are pointing westward. 'Tis the 
course of empire. I own I am a little superstitious about the 
raven." 

XYI. 

The next morning Santa Anna asked leave to see General 
Houston, which was granted. He presented himself elegantly 
dressed in citizen's garb, and tendered a most respectful and cor- 
dial greeting to his "host," and inquired kindly for his health 
and the state of his wound. The difference in the dresses 
of the two men was striking. Houston had on a plain, old 
black coat, snuff-colored pantaloons, a black velvet vest, a fur 
cap, a worn-out pair of boots, and a scimitar of tried metal, 
with a plated scabbard — a gift from his friend Captain Joseph 
Bonnell, of Fort Jessup. He had worn it, hung by buckskin 
thongs. This constituted his wardrobe, and his armory. Santa 
Anna would have been taken for the victor, and Houston for 
the captive. 

XYII. 

The Texan commander received his prisoner with courtesy, 
and he immediately proposed negotiations for his liberty. Hous- 
ton, who, from the, beginning to the end of Santa Anna's capture^ 
never was alone with him a single moment, immediately sent for 
the Secretary of War, and together they conversed some time 
with the prisoner. Santa Anna submitted a proposition. But 
General Houston informed the Mexican '^ President" that he 
could take no action on his proposals, as Texas was ruled by a 
Constitutional Government, whose members had been sent for 
immediately after the battle. Santa Anna naturally asked where 
the Government was — a question which he found could not be 
so easily answered. 

1* 



154 Houston's treatment of his prisoners. 

XYIII. 

This " Government'' had, as we have already stated, fled from 
the scene of danger, and scattered to the four winds of Heaven. 
Fortunately, it was known where the head of the Government 
was, or rather where he had been, for he had escaped to Galveston, 
and prepared to take passage on a little vessel called the Flash, 
before even the first flash of the enemy's guns. Houston think- 
ing he might wait there till the news of the battle came — since 
even so prudent a man would perceive he could have plenty of 
time to get his craft under way before the victors could reach 
him — had dispatched his first express to that quarter. 



XIX. 

It is to be disclaimed that Houston, or the Secretary of War, 
in his presence, ever entertained any proposition of Santa Anna's, 
to enter into negotiations with him ; but referred him to the 
Cabinet. At the end of the first conversation -with Santa Anna, 
Houston peremptorily ordered him to draw up a command to 
Gen. Filisola, second in command to him, to evacuate Texas, 
and fall back to Monterey, on the west side of the Rio Grande. 
And it was a peremptory command of Houston, without annex- 
ing any condition to it. Xor did Houston ever make any pro- 
mise, nor was any made by any other person, so far as Houston 
was cognizant of it. 

XX. 

Santa Anna, who had a great aversion against any nego- 
tiations with civilians, manifested a perfect willingness to act 
with military men. But Houston and Rusk were immovable 
in their determination. A detachment of 250 Texans was then 



ORDERS TO SANTA ANNA. 155 

ordered to march with a dispatch from Santa Anna, and 
General Filisola was instructed to depart immediately, with all 
the Mexican troops, as far at least as Monterey,-^this order 
had been exacted by General Houston without an intimation 
that even Santa Anna's life should be spared. Filisola was on 
the east side of the Brazos when he received news of the disas- 
ter of San Jacinto from an officer who had escaped from the 
battle-field on a fleet Andalusian courser, and succeeded in reach- 
ing his camp. 

XXI. 

It was night when he reached Filisola's head-quarters, when the 
camp broke up in confusion, and prepared for flight. They fired 
a large cotton gin, to have the benefit of the flames to light up 
their passage over the river. The Texan detachment pressed on 
by forced marches in pursuit of the rear-guard of the Mexican 
army. They found horses, mules, and baggage-wagons, with 
sick soldiers, scattered along the path of the flying Division, 
which indicated the utter consternation with which the retreat 
had been made. They had been obliged to march through a 
low, wet prairie, in reaching the Colorado. But they were 
overtaken by the pursuers, and Filisola received the messengers 
who bore the flag with every mark of respect, and pledged him- 
self to execute General Santa Anna's orders without any delay. 
He asked leave only to take some cattle along his march : but he 
stretched his license far enough to rob every living thing he fell in 
with on his way. Filisola's Division marched, and the Texan 
Detachment returned to San Jacinto. 



XXII. 

Houston had given orders that a portion of the spoils should 



156 THE FUGITIVE GOVERNMENT. 

be divided equally among officers and men, and appointed three 
suj^erior officers to execute his order. 

A- great number of incidents occurred during this period, 
which would serve to illustrate Houston's character. But we 
are obliged to omit their relation. A soldier, for example, had 
fled from the battle, declaring that all his comrades were killed 
at the first fire. When General Houston heard of the circum- 
stance, he declared he would have him shot. His Captain 
importuned the Commander to let him go. " Why, yes, Captain," 
said the General, " I will let him off, but on condition that 
he will promise to marry into a valiant race and cross the breed. 
Under no other circumstances will I let him go." 

XXIII. 

The news of the victory spread by expresses all over the 
country, and not many days elapsed before the little steamboat 
Yellow Stone arrived from Galveston, bringing the (fugitive) 
" Government ;" and they boldly marched right into the very 
presence of Santa Anna himself, who had been surrendered to 
them the moment of their arrival. But when they came from 
their hiding-places, they looked, of course, more like victors 
than fugitives. Houston, at once, surrendered everything into 
their hands but the money ; this had been already divided 
among his gallant comrades. 

Those who understand much of human nature, will not be sur- 
prised to hear that, from that day forward, these ''fugitive 
statesmen" became the irrevocable foes of the brave man who 
had redeemed the nation which they had deserted in the hour 
of her darkest trial. They had fled, and Houston had fought ; 
they knew the odium that would rest upon their names, and as 
Houston had been covered with the fame of a hero, they never 
could forgive him. An old philosopher once said, we never do 



RUSK, THE PATRIOT SOLDIER. 157 

forgive anybody whom we have injured. They did not express 
any aversion to, or condemnation of, Houston's acts — this would 
not have been entirely safe — but their future conduct showed 
most clearly, that, from that day, they were bent upon his 
destruction. 

XXIY. 

They began by treating him with manifest coolness. A pro- 
position was even made by Robert Potter, Secretary of the 
Navy, to dismiss him from service, alleging no cause, but many 
reasons. Mr. Rusk, the Secretary of War, who, when the 
Cabinet fled to the sea-shore, had hurried to the camp, and 
toiled with its heroic soldiery, partaking of their privations and 
mingling in their perils — Mr. Rusk, the patriot-soldier, met the 
proposition in a spirited and indignant manner, and defeated 
their mahcious machinations. The $12,000 had been distributed 
among the officers and men — Houston would receive no share — 
and this was a crime heavy enough to condemn him ; for the 
'* Government" thought they needed it for their own purposes 
— and it is quite likely they did. But the "Government" did 
not dare to bring it forward as an accusation against the 
General, for they knew it would have roused the indignation of 
every man in the army. 

XXY. 

The Secretary of War wrote a letter to Houston, asking his 
views about the release of Santa Anna. He returned the fol- 
lowing answer : 

Head Quarters of the Army. 
Camp San Jacinto, 3d Mai/, lS-36. 

I have not the pleasure to know on what basis the Executive Govern- 
ment contemplate the arrangement with General Santa Anna, but I would 



158 CONDITIONS OF SANTA ANNa's RELEASE. 

respectfully suggest, that so far as I have been enabled to give my atten- 
tion to the subject, the following points should have some weight : 

The recognition of the Independence of Texas should be a sine qua non. 
The limits of Texas should extend to the Rio Grande, and from the mouth, 
pursuing the stream to its most northwestern source, and from thence 
northeast to the line of the United States. Indemnity for all losses sus- 
tained by Texas during the war. Commissioners to be appointed for 
ascertaining the fact— one Mexican, one Texan, and one American. The 
guarantee to be obtained from the United States, for the fulfillment of the 
stipulation on the part of the contending parties. General Santa Anna to 
be retained as a hostage, with such other officers as the Government may 
think proper, until they are recognized or ratified by the Mexican Govern- 
ment. Immediate restoration of Texan or Mexican citizens, or those 
friendly to the cause of Texas, who may have been retained, with their 
property. Instantaneous withdrawal of all the Mexican troops from the 
limits of Texas. All property in Texas to be restored, and not rSolested 
by the troops or marauders in falling back. Cessation of all hostilities by 
sea and land. A guarantee for the safety and restoration of Mexican 
prisoners, so soon as the conditions shall be complied with. Agents to be 
sent to the United States to obtain the mediation of that government in 
the affairs of Mexico and Texas. 



XXYI. 

An attempt was made to heap upon Houston the odium both 
of Santa Anna's release and imprisonment after the treaty. 
But the attempt succeeded only for a time., as falsehood ahvays 
will, and then these charges, with a thousand others, returned 
to plague their inventors.^ But in Texas they never were 
believed at all — there the facts were all known. It is a curious 
circumstance, that the report once so common in the United 
States, and even till now uncontradicted by Houston (for he 
never esteemed any lie worth contradicting), viz. that he played 
the coward at San Jacinto, and never would have fought at all 
if he had not been forced into battle by his soldiers ; that he fled 
from the field, or — as many had it — was never in the field at all, 



THE MAKER OF ENVY. 159 

— should have originated and been industriously circulated by 
the very men who had been the first to fly from danger, and 
leave the country in its darkest hour to take care of itself! 
And yet such was the case. But from all these ''mountain 
lies " the name of Houston has come out fair and clear. 

XXYII. 

Yolunteers had now rushed in from all quarters, where the 
news of the victory had spread ; and some brave men, who had 
come on by forced marches to 'join Houston's standard when he 
needed their help, had the misfortune, also, to reach the camp 
too late. Great activity, disciphne and vigor became necessary. 
Houston was rendered perfectly helpless by his wound ; and it 
was believed that, even if he survived, he would not be again fit 
for service for many mouths. He signified his desire that 
General Rusk should succeed him in the command, and, as no 
other man would have been acceptable, he was selected by the 
Cabinet as Brigadier-General. From the arrival of the 
" Government," which, to the surprise of Santa Anna, had at 
last been found, the Mexican President had not been permitted 
to pay his customary morning visit to his courteous and humane 
captor ; and he had also been kept under the irritating and 
humiliating surveillance of the Cabinet. This unnecessary and 
indelicate severity (or, as Santa Anna himself termed it, " bad 
manners") was a source of great pain and mortification to the 
captive General. 

XXYIII. 

Mr. Lamar was appointed Secretary of War, to fill the va- 
cancy in the Cabinet. After the failure to disgrace Houston, 
there was a cruel effort made to depress and harrow his feelings. 
Every petty artifice was resorted to, to torture the feelings of 
the enfeebled, wounded hero. A fine stallion, that had been 



160 SCENES AFTER SAN JACINTO. 

ridden in battle by Almonte, and captured by Karnes in the 
pursuit of the enemy, had been presented by that gallant officer 
to his General. Although the animal was not of the spoils taken 
on the field, Houston sent him to parade, and to be sold for the 
benefit of the army. By the united voice of the camp, he was 
led up to his master, with an earnest entreaty that he would 
retain him, and "they hoped, too," they said, "the General 
would be able to ride him very soon." He was a noble ani- 
mal ; and as black as a raven. After the army had con- 
firmed the present of Karnes, the " Government " took the horse 
from the Commander. This was, certainly, a chivalrous act 
towards a man who had saved the country, and was yet unable 
to move, even on crutches. We will state one more circum- 
stance about these men, and then leave them to the odium which 
rests on their name, for having tortured the feelings of a 
brave and patriotic man. 

XXIX. 

When the army were taking up their line of march to the 
west, with the settlements all broken up, and Houston was 
without any of the comforts the wounde(J man so much needs; 
when his surgeon had no medicine in the camp to give him, or 
dress his wound with, and it became necessary for him to visit 
New Orleans as the nearest place he could go to for medical aid 
to save his life, and the steamboat Yellow Stone was ready to 
sail for Galveston, with the Cabinet, and Santa Anna and suite ; 
these gentlemen had, by common consent, agreed to leave the 
wounded Commander-in-Chief to die — in sight of the field of San 
Jacinto ! Houston could hardly believe this, and yet, when he 
saw lie was going to be left in his helplessness, he applied to the 
Cabinet for a passage. The oppUcation was sternly refused ! 
The captain of the boat, hearing of the circumstance, vowed it 
should never leave the shore without it bore General Houston. 



Houston's noble conduct. 161 

He tendered him a passage, and he was carried aboard by Gene- 
ral Rusk and his brother David. He was also accompanied by 
a few of his staff ; among others his surgeon-general, Dr. Ewing. 
When the Doctor came on board, the Cabinet told him he could 
not accompany General Houston, and if he did, he would be 
discharged from the service, although they had not a shadow of 
authority to do it. The surgeon told Houston of this. " I am 
sorry, my dear fellow," said he, "for I have nothing to promise 
you in the future, and you know I am poor ; so you had better 
not incur the displeasure of the new Secretary of War." But 
the magnanimous man determined to follow his General, for he 
would not desert either a friend or a brave man in the hour of 
need. He went ; but the Cabinet was as good as its word ; he 
was dismissed at once from the army. He did not know then 
that Houston's star was so soon to come forth from its deep 
eclipse. When Santa Anna, who had wept when he was told 
that General Houston was not coming on board, saw him 
brought on, he ran to him, and embraced him with unfeigned joy. 

XXX. 

The boat reached Galveston Island, where, at the time, 
there was not a framed house, and remained there for the night. 
Some volunteers, who had arrived there from the United States, 
hearing the President, ad interim, as he went on shore, cast 
some reflections upon Houston, their officers immediately waited 
on the General, and offered to take him off, and do anything he 
might desire for his comfort or his honor. He was aware of 
the spirit the men felt, for they showed it too plainly to allow 
it to be mistaken, and he declined going just then. But he 
issued an order as he took leave of the men, and exhorted them 
to " render obedience to the authorities of the country, and not 
dishonor themselves by any disrespect to the Government, being 



162 THE GENERAL PARTING WITH THE ARMY. 

assured that by honoring- the ranks they would be qualified for 
the highest rights of citizenship." Tiiey discussed the subject 
of treating the Cabinet with great harshness ; but they at last 
yielded to Houston's commands and entreaties, and smothered 
their indignation. A single word from the wounded man would 
have crushed those restless and ambitious men, who had inflicted 
so much pain upon himself, and who afterwards brought so much 
misery and dishonor upon his country. But on this occasion, 
as on all others, he showed how well regard for law and order 
had fitted him to govern, and how easy it is for a truly great 
man to be magnanimous to his enemies. 



XXXI. 

We had nearly forgotten to mention the scene which was 
witnessed when Houston parted with the army. He was too 
feeble to speak to them, but he dictated the following touching 
address, which was read in camp as Army Orders. 

Head Quarters, San Jacinto, May 5th, 1836. 

Comrades— Circumstances connected with the battle of the 21st render 
our separation, for the present, unavoidable. I need not express to you 
the many painful sensations which that necessity inflicts upon me. I am 
solaced, however, by the hope, that we shall soon be reunited in the gi'eat 
cause of Liberty. Brigadier-General Rusk is appointed to command the 
army for tlic present. I confide in his valor, his patriotism, his wisdom. 
His conduct in the battle of San Jacinto was sufficient to ensure your con- 
fidence and regard. 

The enemy, though retreating, are still within the limits of Texas ; 
their situation being known to you, you cannot be taken by surprise. 
Discipline and subordination will render you invincible. Your valor and 
heroism have proved you unrivalled. Let not contempt for the enemy 
throw you off your guard. Vigilance is the first duty of a soldier, and 
glory the proudest reward of his toils. 

You have patiently endured privations, hardships, and difficulties, 



ADDRESS TO THE SOLDIERS. 163 

unappalled ; you have encountered odds of two to one of the enemy 
against you, and borne yourselves, in the onset and conflict of battle, in 
a manner unknown in the annals of modern warfare. While an enemy 
to your independence remains in Texas, the work is incomplete ; but when 
liberty is firmly established by your patience and your valor, it will be 
fame enough to say, " I was a member of the army of San Jacinto." 

In taking leave of my brave comrades in arms, I cannot suppress the 
expression of that pride which I so justly feel in having had the honor to 
command them in person, nor will I withhold the tribute of my warmest 
admiration and gratitude for the promptness with which my orders were 
executed, and union maintained through the army. At parting, my 
heart embraces you with gratitude and affection. 

SAM HOUSTON, Commander-in-Chief. 

It is said that when this touching and eloquent address was 
read to the army, the tears of the brave men fell upon the rifles 
on which they were leaning. Such was his parting with his 
companions in arms. 



XXXII. 

A small war vessel, belonging to the Republic, was sailing 
from Galveston to New Orleans. Houston applied for a pas- 
sage with his staff. It was refused, although the war vessel 
carried several persons not belonging to the crew or the service. 
A little American schooner (the Flora) was also lying there. 
The General sent for the captain, and contracted with him for 
passage for himself and staff, to be paid when he could, for he 
had not a dollar of money to advance. During the entire cam- 
paign, neither he nor any one of his followers had received a 
shilling from the " Government," and all the funds he had of 
his own, he had generously devoted to the relief of the fugitive 
women and children, whose husbands and fathers had been 
slaughtered at the Alamo, or massacred with Fannin. Santa 
Anna now asked permission of the Cabinet to take leave 



164 Houston's reception at new Orleans. 

of General Houston, but he was refused that privilege. Cap- 
tain Chas. Hawkins, of the Texan Navy, stated these facts ; 
and he also said, that Santa Anna wept on the occasion. 



XXXIII. 

We pass over the long and tedious voyage of the little 
schooner. She arrived at the Balize in the night, and the next 
day, May 28th, was towed up to Xew Orleans. General 
Houston had now been nearly forty days without medicine or 
poultices; the bandages for his wound he had torn from the shirt 
he wore, till all but its bosom was gone — for he had given all he 
had away to the soldiers, as their necessities had before been 
greater than his own. He was now, as he supposed, in a dying 
state. He was so feeble, he could not even be raised up with- 
out fainting. In passing the English Turn, about eighteen 
miles below Xew Orleans, it was known by expresses in waiting, 
that Houston was on board, and it was the first confirmation of 
the news of the battle. It was Sunday, and the levee was black 
with the dense crowd which, as the intelligence spread through 
the city, had rushed together to see the wounded soldier. His 
friend. Colonel Wm. Christy, with whom he had served as 
lieutenant in his youth, had prepared for him in his house every 
comfort his situation required, and he was now eager to grasp 
the hand of his old comrade, and extend to him the most cordial 
welcome. Dr. Kerr, too, who had operated on his wounds just 
thirty years before, hastened to the vessel, where he found him 
lying on the deck. He fell upon him, and embraced him like a 
father. He, with Dr. Cenas, gave him every attention, and they 
saved his life; for they said if he had arrived a few hours later, 
he could not have been saved, since his wound had begun to 
show the first symptoms of mortification. 



HOUSTON RETURNS TO HIS HOME. 165 

XXXIV. 

The crowd on the boat was so great, it was in danger of sink- 
ing, and the throng so dense on the pier, it was a long time be- 
fore he could be got ashore. An unsuccessful attempt had been 
made to lift him ashore, but it seemed he would die of torture be- 
fore it could be done. At last, feeling that his strength was 
going, he rose on his crutches, and, by a desperate effort, got 
over the gunwale himself. He was immediately laid upon a 
litter, where he fainted away. In the meantime, bands of music 
had come down to the pier, and were playing martial airs, while 
the landing was being effected. The cot, which had been pre- 
pared, was brought up, and Houston, who seemed to be dying, 
was borne through the vast throng to the hospitable mansion 
of his friend, where this skeleton of disease and suffering at last 
found repose. 

XXXV. 

He remained about two weeks in New Orleans, and although 
he was far from being out of danger, yet his anxiety to return 
to Texas was so great, that he took passage to Nachitoches, on 
the Red River, this being the only practicable rout to his home 
in Eastern Texas. The fatigue and exposure of the journey 
were too much for his feeble health, and he was obliged to stop 
several days to recover his strength. But the first moment he 
was able, he travelled on to San Augustine, where he remained 
till the news came that the Cabinet had made a treaty with 
Santa Anna, and were resolved on his liberation. At the same 
time it was stated that the enemy was preparing for another 
campaign. Demonstrations of respect had been made, and din- 
ners offered to him at New Orleans, Nachitoches, and San 
Augustine; but he declined all such compliments. The report 



16^ SANTA ANNA TO BE EXECUTED. 

of the advance of the enemy had brongbt together a vast con- 
course of people at San Augustine. Houston was taken to the 
meeting, and, resting on his crutches, delivered an address, 
which produced such an effect, that one hundred and sixty men, 
in two days, took up their march for the frontier. 

XXXYI. 

Soon after, the General received intelligence that Colonels 
Millard and Wheelock had been dispatched from the army then 
at the Coleto, with a demand on the Cabinet that they should 
deliver up Santa Anna into their hands for execution, reproach- 
ing them for the neglect of their duty, and an order to arrest 
President Burnet, and bring him to the Texan camp. Houston 
immediately dispatched by express to the army the following 
Protest against their proceedings. 

XXXYII. 

Ayish Bayou, 26th July, 1836. 
TO THE GENERAL COMMAXDIXG THE ARMY OF TEXAS. 

Sir, — I have just heard through a citizen, of the army, that it is the 
intention to remove General Santa Anna to the army, and place him upon 
his trial. I cannot credit this statement ; it is obviously contrary to the 
true policy of Texas. The advantages which his capture presented to us, 
will be destroyed. Disregard, if you will, our national character, and 
place what construction you please upon the rules of civilized warfare, 
we are compelled by every principle of humanity and morality, to abstain 
from every act of passion or inconsideration that is to be unproductive of 
positive good. Execute Santa Anna, and what will be the fate of the 
Texans who are held prisoners by the Mexicans — what will be the con- 
dition of the North Americans who are residing within the limits of 
Mexico ? Death to them, and confiscation of their property is the least 
that can be expected. Doubtless, torture will be added to the catas- 
trophe, when stimulated by ignorance, fanaticism, and the last expiring 
struggle of the priesthood for power and dominion. Texas, to be res- 



16t 

pected, must be considerate, politic, and just in her actions. Santa Anna, 
living, and secured beyond all danger of escape, in the Eastern section 
of Texas (as I first suggested), may be of incalculable advantage 
to Texas in her present crisis. In cool blood to offer up the living to tlie 
manes of the departed, only finds an example in the religion and warfare 
of savages. Regard for one's departed friends should stimulate us in the 
hour of battle, and would excuse us, in the moment of victory, for partial 
excesses, at which our calmer feelings of humanity would relent. 

The affairs of Texas connected with General Santa Anna, as President 
of the Republic of Mexico, have become matter of consideration to which 
the attention of the United States has been called, and for Texas, at this 
moment, to proceed to extreme measures, as to the merits or demerits of 
General Santa Anna, would be treating that Government with high 
disrespect, and I would respectfully add, in my opinion, it would be 
incurring the most unfortunate responsibility for Texas. 

I, therefore, Commander-in-Chief of the army of the Republic, do 
solemnly protest against the frial, sentence, and execution of General 
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, President of the Republic of Mexico, 
until the relations in which we are to stand to the United States shall be 
ascertained. 

SAM HOUSTON, Comallnder-in-Chiep of the Armt. 



XXXVIII. 

This protest had just the effect designed by the writer. The 
trial of Santa Anna was delayed, and Texas was saved from 
the disgrace and execration which so summary and barbarous a 
proceeding would have brought upon her name. Soon after 
this, Houston removed to Nacogdoches, where he remained 
under the influence of his wound till fall. But he was far from 
being idle, for the country was under a quasi state of martial 
law, and the exigency called for his constant vigilance and 
advice. 

XXXIX. 

In the mean time we must glance rapidly over the events 



168 BAD FAITH WITH SANTA ANNA. 

which were elsewhere taking place. The Cabinet perceiving 
that Houston's views, officially communicated to General Rusk, 
were founded upon the highest principles of policy, humanity, 
and justice, adopted them, in the main, in the treaty, they made 
with Santa Anna, on the 14th of May. The President and his 
Cabinet were still at Yelasco on the first of June, and the 
Texan schooner Invincible was anchored off the bar, in sight of 
the town, with Santa Anna and his suite on board, and the 
sailing orders of the vessel had been issued for her to proceed to 
Vera Cruz. Santa Anna wrote the following Farewell to the 
Texan Army. 

XL. 

" My friends ! I have been a witness of your courage in the field of 
battle, and know you to be generous. Rely with confidence on my 
sincerity, and you shall never have cause to regret the kindness shown 
me. In returning to my native land, I beg you to receive the sincere 
thanks of your grateful friend. Farewell. 

" AxT. Lopez De Saxta Anna. 

" Vdasco, 1st June, 1S36." 



XLI. 

We know not what may be the opinions of others, but we are 
persuaded that Santa Anna never would have committed him- 
self in this manner, when there was no necessity of doing it (for 
it was written after the vessel was under sailing orders), unless 
he really intended to redeem his pledge. For although he had 
entered into a solemn treaty, yet his own conscience and the 
whole world would have palliated any violation of that treaty 
(which was wrung from him by his captors ; for what will not 
a prisoner promise to buy his liberty ? they would have said), 
much sooner than they would have forgiven the violation of 
private pledges, voluntarily given by a free man. Nr, ^wh 



INJUSTICE TO A PRISONER. 169 

pledges were now necessary ; he was perfectly free to give or 
withhold them. Any bad faith subsequently manifested, would 
have been regarded as the blackest perfidy, and Texas would 
have gained more, perhaps (if she had kept her faith inviolate), 
by his treachery, than she would have lost ; for her honor and 
her magnanimity, and the perfidy of Santa Anna, would have 
won for her the sympathy of the civilized world ! But an event 
now took place which must be regarded as a public and lasting 
calamity to Texas. 

XLII. 

Several hundred volunteers from the United States arrived 
at Yelasco, just as the Invincible was sailing. Their commander 
had not participated in the Texan struggle, and, in fact, he had 
yet no authority to order a drum beat in Texas. But he 
declared that the Invincible should not be allowed to lift her 
anchor. He was determined Santa Anna should be tried and 
executed ! It is unnecessary to indulge in any exclamations of 
censure for this use of military power. Popular feeling was on 
his side, and Mr. Lamar had already protested (in a voluminous 
paper) against Santa Anna's release. The President ad interim 
also yielded to this violation of the public faith, and although 
the treaty had been signed, sealed, and delivered, and Santa 
Anna had it with him on board, and the vessel was under sailing 
orders, yet he countermanded her orders, and sent a requisition 
on board for the Mexican President. Santa Anna was aware 
what had been the popular feeling towards him from the day of 
his capture ; and he undoubtedly believed that his life would be 
in danger in the hands of the President. Under such circum- 
stances, he resolutely refused to go on shore. The order was 
repeated the next day, and it provoked a similar reply. On 
the afternoon of the third of June, armed men '' visited the 
Invincible" (says Foote, 2 vol., p. 342), "for the purpose of" 



1*70 SANTA anna's REMONSTRANCE. 

bringing off the Dictator, dead or alivcy Santa Anna remon- 
strated against the lawless outrage, and, like a brave man, de- 
clared he v/ould die before he left. "All this time (p. 343) he lay 
on his back in his berth, and his respiration seemed to be exceed- 
ingly difficult." No wonder such a display of the boasted 
Anglo-Saxon faith should disturb the respiration even of a Mexi- 
can I All other means failing, a military commander ordered 
him to be jput in irons. " When the irons were brought within 
his view, the prisoner jumped up, adjusted his collar, put on his 
hat, and stated his readiness to accompany us." (P. 343). And 
how else could a defenceless prisoner act, with a score of 
bayonets or bowie-knives at his breast ? For our own part, we 
know of no circumstance in Santa Anna's history, so worthy of 
admiration as his conduct on this occasion ; nor do we know of 
any act of perfidy or cowardice equal .to that evinced by his 
lawless aggressors. 

Santa Anna was and is an ambitious, selfish, military chief- 
tain, who has trampled on the Constitution, and blotted out the 
liberties of his country. But to his honor be it said, that he 
was not the first to violate the treaty of the 14th of May. Like 
a brave man, too, he boldly protested against the perfidy of 
the Texan cabinet. 

XLIII. 

He said : "I had embarked on the Texan schooner-of-war, 
the Invincible, on the 1st of June, after addressing a short fare- 
well to the Texans, wherein I thanked them for their generous 
behavior, and offered my eternal gratitude. And I protest 
(5thly), for the act of violence committed on my person, and 
abuse to wiiich I have been exposed, in being compelled to go 
on shore, merely because 130 volunteers, under the command of 

, recently landed on the beach at Velasco, from New 

Orleans, bad with tumults and threats demanded that my per- 



A BITTER SARCASM. 171 

son should be placed at their disposal, which took place on the 
very day the government received from Gen. Filisola the answer 
that he had strictly fulfilled what had been stipulated in the 
treaty. * * * Under these circumstances, I appeal to the 
judgment of civilized nations, to the consciences of the citizens 
who compose the Cabinet, and, above all, to the Supreme Ruler 
of the destinies of nations, who has placed the existence and 
happiness of nations on the faith of treaties and punctual fulfill- 
ment of engagements." 

XLIY. 

If Santa Anna is pointed to Goliad and the Alamo, his reply 
is, that such an appeal to the civilized world and to the Supreme 
Ruler of nations from the perpetrator of those massacres, only 
makes his sarcasm on the faith of the Texan Cabinet the more 
bitter. 

If it be said that the President ad interim was obliged to 
yield to the clamor of the populace, who w^re thirsting 
for Santa Anna's blood, I reply that he could not have been 
compelled, by any mortal power, to write with his own hand the 
requisition for Santa Anna — had he been a man of nerve enough 
to fit him to hold the reins of power in revolutionary times. 
When Houston was asked what he would have done in the same 
circumstances, he said, " I would have regarded the faith of the 
nation under any circumstances, and before the mob should have 
laid hands on Santa Anna, they should have first drunk my blood." 
It now became perfectly certain that all the hopes of advantage 
for Texas, which Houston had borrowed from the treaty and the 
release of Santa Anna, were to be disappointed. He knew that 
the only reliance they had or could have, was upon his gratitude 
and sense of honor, and now the course his enemies had taken 
had dissolved all his obligations. 



172 THE NEW COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 

XLY. 

After Mr. Lamar resigned his post as Secretary of War, the 
Cabinet appointed him Commander-in-Chief of the Army, over 
the heads of Generals Houston and Rusk. He immediately 
repaired to the army with his commission, and surrounded by 
his staff. The army was drawn up ; after addressing them, he 
requested an expression of their sentiments. They were anxious 
for Houston again to assume the command, and in the meantime 
were perfectly satisfied with General Rusk. But Mr Lamar 
wished some more decided demonstration, and they were ordered, 
by marching in dififerent directions, to indicate their feelings 
towards the new commander. There were about 1800 troops in 
camp — less than one in eighteen voted for him, and the rest posi- 
tively refused to serve under him ! He thus acquired the title 
of General, and got rid of the responsibilities of the command. 



ELECTION OF THE FIRST PRESIDENT. 113 



SECTION TENTH. 

THE PRESIDENT. 
I. 

The Government ad interim at last became disgusted with 
power. The people felt that when Houston was away, they had 
no one to repose on, and discontent became universal. Provision 
had been made by the Convention for the crisis, and writs were 
issued for the election of a President by the people of Texas. 

II. 

There were two candidates — General Stephen F. Austin, and 
Ex-Governor Henry Smith. They were both excellent men, 
particularly Gen. Austin, whom we have had occasion so often 
to mention with respect. Houstoji had been importuned from 
the beginning to become a candidate ; but he had refused ; nor 
did he consent till twelve days before the election. He wished 
to retire from public life, for he believed there would be no neces- 
sity of firing another hostile gun in Texas, if the public councils 
were guided by firmness and wisdom. He had been unrelent- 
ingly persecuted, and his feelings outraged, just in proportion as 
he had devoted himself to the State. In retirement, he could 
be happy, and his country free. He was, therefore, disinclined 
to mingle in the turmoil of public life. But one motive at last 
overcame his objections. He believed the virulence of party to 
be such — that if either of the candidates should succeed, their 



174 HOUSTON ELECTED BY ACCLAMATION. 

cabinets would be made up exclusively of party men, which 
would endanger the stability of the administration. A govern- 
ment was to be created from chaos, without a dollar and without 
credit. The parties were pretty equally balanced, and there was 
great reason to fear that those out of power would so far embar- 
rass the administration as to destroy its efficiency. He believed, 
that since he belonged to neither party, and possessed the confi- 
dence of the great mass of the people, he might still render 
signal service to the State, and he allowed his name to be used. 

III. 

At the announcement, the turbulence of party everywhere 
gave way to national enthusiasm. Xone but his enemies 
thought of opposing his election, and they were only a feeble 
clique of adventurers, who had rushed to Texas when her agi- 
tations began, hoping to win, in the turbulent scenes of Revo- 
lution, a notoriety they had in vain sought for in the calmer 
scenes of civic life. The Provisional Government of '35, and 
the Administration of '36, had proved they were incapable of 
holding the reins of Government over a frontier population. 
The people at last saw that they must place at the helm some 
man whose strong hand would steady the vessel through the 
boisterous surges. They knew there was but one man in Texas 
who could sway the mulitude, and when the hero of San Jacinto 
consented to accept the Presidency, they offered it to him by 
acclamation. 

lY. 

Houston had indeed displayed those rare qualities which make 
the great General. It now remained to be seen if he was 
endowed with those loftier and nobler qualities, which would fit 
him for the Cabinet^or a far more difficult task now remained, 




<>^ 



THE FIRST TEXAN CONGRESS. 1*?5 

in the organization of a government which should secure peace, 
power, and prosperity at home, and command, the respect of 
civilized nations — than it had been to win even the brilliant 
victory of San Jacinto. Senators and representatives were 
elected at the same time, and on the 3d of October (1836), the 
delegates assembled at Columbia, and the first Congress of the 
Republic of Texas was organized. 



On the morning of the 22d of the same month, the President 
ad interim tendered his resignation, and a resolution was imme- 
diately introduced, " that the inauguration take place at four 
o'clock this day." A committee from both houses waited upon 
the President elect, and at four o'clock, he was introduced with- 
in the barof the House of Representatives. The Speaker " ad- 
ministered to him the oath of office, and then proclaimed Sam 
Houston President of the Republic of Texas." Advancing to 
the table, he delivered an extemporaneous Inaugural Address. 
We consider it important for the reader to be furnished with it 
entire, for it unfolds the policy of Houston's administration, and 
it could never have been spoken but by a statesman. It will 
be consulted by future times as the most important State paper 
that will be found in the early archives of Texas. We give it 
as it came from the reporter of the Congress. 



YI. 

Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen : 

Deeply impressed with a sense of the responsibility devolving on me, I can- 
not, in justice to myself, repress the emotion of my heart, or restrain the 
feelings which my sense of obligation to my fellow citizens has inspired — 
their suffrage was gratuitously bestowed. Preferred to others, not 
unlikely superior in merit to myself, called to the most important station 



176 Houston's INAUGURAL ADDBES3. 

among mankind, by the voice of a free people, it is utterly impossible not 
to feel impressed with Ihe deepest sensations of delicacy, in my present 
position before the world. It is not here alone, but our present attitude 
before all nations, has rendered my position, and that of my country, one 
of peculiar interest. 

A spot of earth almost unknown to the geography of the age, destitute 
of all available resources, few in numbers, we remonstrated against oppres- 
sion ; and when invaded by a numerous host, we dared to proclaim our 
Independence and to strike for freedom on the breast of the oppressor. 
As yet our course is onward. We are only in the outset of the campaign 
of liberty. Futurity has locked up the destiny which awaits our people. 
Who can contemplate with apathy a situation so imposing in the moral 
and physical world ! 

The relations among ourselves are peculiarly delicate and important ; 
for no matter what zeal or fidelity I may possess in the discharge of my 
official duties, if I do not obtain co-operation and an honest support from 
the co-ordinate departments of the government, wreck and ruin must 
be the inevitable consequences of my administration. If then, in the dis- 
charge of ray duty, my competency should fail in the attainment of the 
great objects in view, it would become your sacred duty to correct my 
errors and sustain me by your superior wisdom. This much I anticipate — 
this much I demand. 

I am perfectly aware of the difficulties that surround me, and the con- 
vulsive throes through which our country must pass. I have never been 
emulous of the civic wreath — when merited it crowns a happy destiny. A 
country, situated like ours, is environed with difficulties, its administration 
is fraught with perplexities. Had it been my destiny, I would infinitely 
have preferred the toils, privations, and perils of a soldier, to the duties of 
my present station. Nothing but zeal, stimulated by the holy spirit of 
patriotism, and guided by philosophy and reason, can give that impetus 
to our energies necessary to surmount the difficulties that obstruct our 
political progress. By the aid of your intelligence, I trust all impedi- 
ments to our advancement will be removed •, that all wounds in the body 
politic will be healed, and the Constitution of the Republic derive strength 
and vigor equal to any emergenc}'. I shall confidently anticipate the 
consolidation of Constitutional liberty. In the attainment of this object, 
we must regard our relative situation to other countries. 

A subject of no small importance is the situation of an extensive fron- 
tier, bordered by Indians, and open to their depredations. Treaties of 



THE INFANT REPUBLIC. 1*1*1 

peace and amity and the maintenance of good faith with the Indians, 
seem to me the most rational means for winning their friendship. Let us 
abstain from aggression, establish commerce with the different tribes, 
supply their useful and necessary wants, maintain even-handed justice 
with them, and natural reason will teach them the utility of our friend- 
ship. 

Admonished by the past, we cannot, in justice, disregard our national 
enemies. Vigilance will apprise us of their approach, a disciplined and 
valiant army will insure their discomfiture. Without discrimination and 
system, how unavailing would all the resources of an old and overflowing 
treasury prove to us. It would be as unprofitable to us in our present 
situation, as the rich diamond locked in the bosom of the adamant. "We 
cannot hope that the bosom of our beautiful prairies will soon be visited 
by the 'healing breezes of peace. We may again look for the day when 
their verdure will be converted into dyes of crimson. We must keep all 
our energies alive, our army organized, disciplined, and increased to our 
present emergencies. With ther.e preparations we can meet and vanquish 
despotic thousands. This is the attitude we at present must regard as our 
own. We are battling for human liberty ; reason and firmness must 
characterize our acts. 

The course our enemies have pursued has been opposed to every princi- 
ple of civilized warfare — bad faith, inhumanity and devastation marked 
their path of invasion. We were a little band, contending for liberty — 
they were thousands, well appointed, munitioned and provisioned, seeking 
to rivet chains upon us, or to extirpate us from the earth. Their cruelties 
have incurred the universal denunciation of Christendom. They will not 
pass from their nation during the present generation. The contrast of 
our conduct is manifest ; we were hunted down as the felon wolf, our 
little band driven from fastness to fastness, exasperated to the last 
extreme ; while the blood of our kindred and our friends, invoking the 
vengeance of an oftended God, was smoking to high heaven, we met our 
enemy and vanquished them. They fell in battle, or suppliantly kneeled 
and were spared. We offered up our vengeance at the shrine of humanity, 
while Christianity rejoiced at the act and looked with pride at the sacrifice. 
The civilized world contemplated with proud emotions, conduct which 
reflected so much glory on the Anglo-Saxon race. The moral effect has 
done more towards our liberation, than the defeat of the army of veterans. 
Where our cause has been presented to our friends in the land of our 
origin, they have embraced it with their warmest sympathies. They havo 

8* 



178 HOUSTON RETURNS HIS SWORD. 

rendered us manly and efficient aids. Tliey have rallied to our standard, 
they have fought side by side with our warriors. They have bled, and 
their dust is mingling with the ashes of our heroes. At this moment I 
discern numbers around me, who battled in the field of San Jacinto, and 
whose chivalry and valor have identified them with the glory of the 
country, its name, its soil, and its liberty. There sits a gentleman within 
my view, whose personal and political services to Texas have been 
invaluable. He was the first in the United States to respond to our 
cause. His purse was ever open to our necessities. His hand was 
extended in our aid. His presence among us, and his return to the 
embraces of our friends, will inspire new efforts in behalf of our cause. 

[The attention of the Speaker and that of Congress was directed to 
Wra. Christy, Esq., of New Orleans, who sat by invitation within the 
bar.] 

A circumstance of the highest import will claim the attention of the 
court at Washington. In our recent election, the important subject of 
annexation to the United States of America was submitted to the con- 
sideration of the people. They have expressed their feelings and their 
wishes on that momentous subject. They have, with a unanimity 
unparalleled, declared that they will be reunited to the Great Republican 
family of the North. The appeal is made by a willing people. Will our 
friends disregard it ? They have already bestowed upon us their warmest 
sympathies. Their manly and generous feelings have been enlisted on 
our behalf. We are cheered by the hope that they will receive us to par- 
ticipate in iheir civil, political, and religious rights, and hail us welcome 
into the great family of freemen. Our misfortunes have been their mis- 
fortunes — our sorrows, too, have been theirs, and their joy at our success 
has been irrepressible. 

A thousand considerations press upon me ; each claims my attention. 
But the shortness of the notice of this emergency (for the speaker had 
only four hours* notice of the inauguration, and all this time was spent in 
conversation) will not enable me to do justice to those subjects, and will 
necessarily induce their postponement for the present. 

[Here the President, says the reporter, paused for a few seconds and 
disengaged his sword.] 

It now, sir, becomes my duty to make a presentation of this sword — this 
emblem of ray past office. [The President was unable to proceed further ; 
but having firmly clenched it with both hands, as if with a farewell grasp, 
a tide of varied associations rushed upon him in the moment, his counte- 



FIRST STEP OF THE PRESIDENT lt9 

nance bespoke the workings of the strongest emotions, his soul seemed to 
dwell momentarily on the glistening blade, and the greater part of the 
auditory gave outward proof of their congeniality of feeling. It was, in 
reality, a moment of deep and painful interest. After this pause, more 
eloquently impressive than the deepest pathos conveyed in language, the 
President proceeded.] I have worn it with some humble pretensions in 
defence of my country — and should the danger of my country again call 
for my services, I expect to resume it, and respond to that call, if needful, 
with my blood and my life. 



VII, 

The first step the President took in his administration, 
evinced his political forecast, and the broad national principles 
on which he intended to govern the country. He chose his two 
most important cabinet officers from his rivals for the 
Presidency ; General Austin, the incorruptible patriot, became 
Secretary of State, and Ex-Provisional Governor Henry Smith, 
Secretary of the Treasury. This selection was not only mag- 
nanimous, but it was high policy. The rancor of party subsided 
— the oil calmed the turbid waters. It evinced the important 
fact, that Houston had no party but country, and no aim but 
the public good. 

VIII. 

Everything was in chaos. The archives of the State were 
hurled loosely together in an old trunk — everything had to be 
done. Although the Cabinet was composed of apparently so 
discordant materials, yet all their proceedings were character- 
ized by harmony, till Mr. Austin's death, which took place in a 
few months. He was deeply regretted by his people, for he was 
an upright, enlightened and purely patriotic man. Congress 
was now completely organized, aud public business was being 
doue in an orderly and efficient manner. 



180 MEETING OF HOUSTON AND SANTA ANNA. 

IX. 

When Houston arrived at Columbia, for the inauguration, he 
found that his former captive, Santa Anna, was still retained a 
prisoner about twelve miles from the seat of government, under 
a guard of twenty men. Santa Anna sent word to Houston, 
that he would be glad if he could see him. He did not send to 
implore his release — for he seems to have given up nearly all 
hope of ever regaining his liberty. But in Houston he had 
found a magnanimous foe, and he wished to see his conqueror. 



The reader can readily imagine how Houston was affected by 
such a message from a prisoner, to whose release the government 
ad interim had pledged its most solemn faith, and then left him 
to drag out months of weary imprisonment. He still felt as he 
had in the beginning, and he determined to wipe out the stain 
of dishonor from the name of Texas. 

" After a victory like San Jacinto," said he, " we could richly 
afford to be magnanimous — now the only question is, can we 
not afford to be just ?" 

He knew, besides, that there were no means in the government 
to support captives. It had been in a state of quasi dissolu- 
tion for months. Santa Anna and his friends had been 
living on a mere pittance, destitute of the comforts, and almost 
of the necessaries of life. Houston took with him several 
gentlemen to visit the prisoner. Those who were present have 
represented their meeting as affecting. Santa Anna, after the 
custom of his nation, opened his arms and came forward to meet 
his visitor. Houston, whose great heart was large enough to 
hold even his enemies, received him in like manner, and as the 
worn captive rested his head on Houston's broad breast (for he 
hardly came up to his shoulder), they say that the two generals 



Jackson's opinion of Houston. 181 

wept together — the Mexican at the recollection of his reverses 
—the Yirginian sympathizing with the man he had vanquished. 



XI. 

Through Almonte, who still acted as their interpreter, and in 
the presence of Patton and others, Santa Anna appealed to his 
conqueror to interpose his power in his behalf, and adverted to 
the letter he had himself written to Gen. Jackson, and inclosed 
to Houston at Nacogdoches. Jackson had answered his letter 
in very kind terms, and passed a high eulogium upon his friend 
Gen. Houston, for his magnanimity towards his captive. 
Indeed, Gen. Jackson often declared that Houston deserved and 
would receive as much honor from all great and good men, for 
his treatment of Santa Anna after the victory, as for the victory 
itself. " Let those who clamor for blood," said the brave old 
hero, *' clamor on. The world will take care of Houston's 
fame." 

XII. 

Houston was not yet inaugurated, but he assured the Mexi- 
can general that he would remember him. Col. Christy (who 
bore Texas on his heart, and was jealous of her honor) and 
other generous men also, had sent some comforts to Santa 
Anna a short time before, and Houston and some of his friends 
dined with him that day, and then they parted. Santa Anna 
wrote to Houston after his return from Columbia. The com- 
munication was laid before Congress, and his release solicited. 
The matter was referred to committees of both houses, and a 
report was made of a most inflammatory character. In a secret 
session, the Senate passed a resolution requiring his detention 
as a prisoner. Houston responded in a calm, dignified veto, 



182 PARTING OF SANTA ANNA AND HOUSTON. 

showing the impolicy of a longer detention — the probability of 
his being assassinated (as one attempt had already been made 
before Houston's arrival), and that if he were to die from vio- 
lence or disease, Texas never would escape the odium of his 
death. The Senate reversed their decision, and referred the 
matter to the discretion of the President. He expressed the 
belief that if Santa Anna was restored to his country, he would 
keep Mexico in commotion for years, and Texas would be safe. 



XIII. 

Houston determined at once to release him on his own res- 
ponsibility. He informed him that if he wished to visit Wash- 
ington, as Gen. Jackson had requested, he should have an 
escort, chosen by himself. Santa Anna returned his thanks by 
the messenger, and requested that Cols. Hockley and Bee, and 
Major Patton, be allowed to attend him. About the 25th of 
November, the escort departed, and Houston went with them to 
take his final leave of the liberated captive. The parting took 
place — and the little party set out, on fine horses, for the 
Sabine. They lost their way in the prairie, and it so happened 
that they were compelled, in regaining it, to pass over the battle 
ground of San Jacinto ! When Santa Anna saw the bones of 
his soldiers whitening on the field, he w^as deeply affected, and 
the gentlemanly men who attended him, seeming not to observe 
his agitation, rode leisurely on and left the deserted General to 
indulge his feelings on the field of his slain. 



XIY. 

Santa Anna is a great man. He has a Mexican education 
and Mexican principles ; but an American intellect of high order. 



ATTEMPTS AT ANNEXATION. 183 

He is a great General. He has a fine face — a rather long, but 
well-shaped head — black hair and eyes, and a perfect form — he 
is about five feet and eight or nine inches high — his elocution is 
rich, and characterized by considerable fire — his eye is quick, 
but firm, and his manners and address are worthy of a prince. 



XV. 

In the beginning of his Administration, the President ap- 
pointed Colonel William H. Wharton, Minister to Washington, 
with instructions to commence negotiations with General Jack- 
son for the annexation of Texas to the United States. Soon 
after, Memucan Hunt, Esq., was appointed to act in concert 
with him. During the summer of 1836, General Jackson had 
dispatched a confidential agent to Texas. He explored its 
Territory, scrutinized its Government, mingled in its society, 
made himself familiar with its resources, and reported fully to 
the President. His Report satisfied the President and his 
Cabinet, that Texas was entitled, by the Law of Nations, to a 
recognition of her Independence ; and although his own sym- 
pathies were with that people in their struggle, and from the 
hour they achieved their independence, he never had a doubt 
they would one day be annexed to the United States, yet 
he wisely withheld the expression of such an opinion, and did 
not even press upon Congress the Recognition. In his Message 
of the 5th of December, 1886, after assigning the most satisfac- 
tory reasons, he says, " Our character requires that we should 
neither anticipate events, nor attempt to control them." And 
alluding to the desire of Texas for annexation, he says ; 
" Necessarily a work of time, and uncertain in itself, it is 
calculated to expose our conduct to misconstruction in the eyes 
of the world." 



184 walker's advocacy of texas. 

XYI. 

On the twenty-second of the same month, the President, in 
another message, after discussing the question, expresses his 
opinion that it would be impolitic, yet, to recognize Texas as an 
Independent State, and then proposes to acquiesce in the 
decision of Congress. The question was not brought up again 
till the 12th of January, 1837, when Mr. Walker, Senator from 
Mississippi, introduced the following resolution : 

Resolved, That the State of Texas having established and maintained 
an independent Government, is capable of performing those duties, 
foreign and domestic, which appertain to independent Governments ; 
and it appearing that there is no longer any reasonable prospect of the 
successful prosecution of the war, by Mexico, against said State, it 
is expedient and proper, and in conformity with the Laws of Nations, and 
the practice of this Government in like cases, that the independent poli- 
tical existence of that State be acknowledged by the Government of the 
United States. 

XYII. 

The Senate was not prepared for immediate action on the 
question, and Mr. Walker knew it. He was aware that the 
strange and disgraceful war which the American Press had so 
generally waged against the interests and advancement of Texan 
Liberty, had colored the prejudices, and would control the votes 
of Senators, — and he determined to bide his time. Mr. Walker 
moved that his Resolution be made the order of the day for the 
18th of January ; but when the time came, it was crowded 
aside. Several ineflfectual attempts were made to decide the 
question, and at last it was brought up on the 1st of March for 
final action. An able and brilliant debate followed ; Messrs. 
Preston, Crittenden, Clay, and Calhoun, all sustained the Mis- 
sissippi Senator with the persuasive power of their eloquence. 
Mr. Clay spoke of Texas with generous enthusiasm, and uahesi- 



Jackson's last official act. 185 

tatingly declared that her Constitution, as a whole, was superior 
to that of the United States. How different might have been 
the political fortunes of that truly great and patriotic man, and 
the fortunes of l!is party, if he had, to the end, pursued the 
same high and sagacious policy towards that beautiful country ^ 
But his course, as well as Mr. Van Buren's, only furnishes us 
with another impressive illustration how few great men, even, 
are able to withstand the clamor of party in turbulent times. 
The measure prevailed by a small majority. 

XYIII. 

For the success of the measure, Texas was indebted to the 
efforts of Mr. Walker ; and his course in the affair entitled him 
to the regards of the entire nation. The day will come, too, 
when the mists that have obscured the gaze of the people and 
their statesmen, shall have cleared away, and the name of the 
Mississippi Senator will everywhere be mentioned with honor 
and with gratitude. Texas will build his monument, and give it 
a conspicuous place in the temple she will erect for those who 
proved themselves her friends in the day of trial. The grateful 
Republic commissioned the portrait of Mr. Preston, and the 
bust of Mr. Walker, for her Capitol. 

XIX. 

The last time General Jackson ever put his pen ofiScially to 
paper, was to sign the Resolution recognizing Texas an Inde- 
pendent State. Such was the earliest fruit of the Mission of 
those intelligent and accomplished men whom General Houston 
commissioned to Washington. We have read their correspon- 
dence with the two Governments, and we have seldom perused 
abler State Papers. 



186 TEXAS ADVANCES. 

XX. 

In March, 183t, the seat of Government was removed from 
Columbia on the Brazos, to Houston, whicin stands on the 
highest point of navigation on the Bayou, that empties into 
Galveston Bay. There was but one house in Houston. It was 
a cabin just erected, and in it the President of the new nation 
took up his abode. His floor was the ground, where the grass 
was growing. But population rushed in, and in a short time 
comfortable public buildings were erected. 

XXI. 

Houston's policy in regard to the future, was to obtain annex- 
ation if possible. If this could not be done, he was determined 
to conduct the Government on principles that would secure con- 
fidence abroad, and inspire hope at home. The proposition for 
annexation had been rejected by our Government, and such 
was the state of feeling at the time in the United States, Hous- 
ton had no expectation of the early success of that grand 
measure, in whose consummation the keen-sighted statesmen of 
both countries saw so many elements of mutual power and pros- 
perity. He was therefore determined to lay the foundations 
of the Texan Republic deep and strong — to husband its re- 
sources — never to cripple the State with a public debt — to har- 
monize warring factions — to be the ruler of the Nation, and not 
of a party or a clique. 

XXII. 

The cultivation of friendly relations with the powerful and 
warlike savage tribes on the frontier, he regarded as one of the 
most important objects of his administration. This ferocious 
population not only outnumbered all the inhabitants of Texas, 



Houston's treatment of the Indians. 187 

but they could not be conquered. The Camaticbes, the most 
numerous and savage tribe, live in the saddle. They can 
move with their women and children with great celerity when- 
ever and wherever their necessities or their passions carry them ; 
they can make their incursions without the possibility of pursuit 
from their enemies. They are hordes of barbarians, as ferocious 
as Cossacks, and as fleet as the Bedouins of the desert. And 
yet, such was Houston's knowledge of the Indian character, and 
so rigidly did he regard the letter and spirit of his treaties with 
those fearful tribes, he saved the Republic from their incursions, 
and made them venerate and love his name. 

XXIII. 

In a former part of this work, we have given the views of 
Houston on the subject of our treatment of the Indians. Those 
views have been regarded by many as utterly chimerical ; and 
yet if we had space we could show, that during his two adminis- 
trations in Texas, he carried them out successfully ; and he has 
often declared that, in no instance where he had an opportunity 
of giving the Indians evidence that he intended to treat them 
with good faith and with common justice, did he experience the 
slightest difficulty in winning their friendship, and preserving 
their perpetual alliance. .In all these negotiations, the great 
secret of his power over those wily red men, consisted in two 
things. His associations with the Indians gave him a complete 
knowledge of their character — and he treated them on the great 
principles of humanity and justice. 

XXIY. 

And yet the Government was destitute of all ordinary means 
of support. It had |pt a dollar, nor could loans be obtained. 
An army was in the field, but it could not be maintained. When 



188 DISBANDING THE ARMY. 

Congress met at Houston, General Felix Huston, who com- 
manded the army, hurried to the ploce. He had projected a 
grand campaign against Matamoras. Every man who felt 
jealous of the influence of the President joined in the scheme. 
The army now numbered over 2,400 men. The President fore- 
saw the consequences of these movements. There was no money 
in the Treasury, or means, or currency except promissory notes, 
struck on common paper. It was clearly impossible to conduct 
a campaign. The President saw what the upshot of this matter 
would be, if something were not done at once, and he resorted 
to a sagacious expedient. Col. Rodgers, now left in command 
of the array, had caused it to be understood that, if the volun- 
teers did not get justice, he would march with them to the Seat 
of Government, " chastise the President, kick Congress out of 
doors, and give laws to Texas." 

XXV. 

At this crisis the President determined to cut the evil up by 
the roots. General Felix Huston had occasionally indulged his 
men in what he called a Saturnalia, where murders had occurred 
in consequence of the brutal intoxication of the men. One 
evening, from intelligence of what was doing in Congress (for 
he never visited the House, except at the opening or close of the 
Session), Houston directed the Secretary of War to be ready to 
start the next morning, at two o'clock, for the Camp. He 
handed him sealed orders, to be opened in the Camp, and ordered 
him to go there with all possible dispatch. These orders required 
the Secretary to furlough the army by companies, until they 
were reduced to six hundred men. The first company was fnr- 
loughed to march to Dimitt's Landing, on Matagorda Bay ; the 
second to the mouth of the Brazos ; tl^ third to Galveston ; 
and this process was continued till the reduction was made. His 



AN ARMY OF ADVENTURERS DISPERSE. 189 

object was to give them an opportunity to get to the United 
States by water, and thus relieve the country from apprehensions. 
The furloughs given to the men were unlimited, but they were 
liable to be recalled at any time by Proclamation ; and if thgy 
did not report themselves in thirty days after the Proclamation, 
they were to be considered deserters, and treated as such. 
Houston could not disband the army, for there was nothing to 
pay them off with ; and he had been taught a lesson by the 
attempt of General Washington to disband the army of the 
North. And yet, so entirely had all subordination been broken 
down — daring scenes of violence were so constantly occurring 
at the camp — so many lawless and desperate men were banded 
together, to commit high-handed depredations — that the whole 
country began to suffer the most serious apprehensions. Houston 
manifested no alarm, but the course he took bespoke his fears. 
He was determined that the army should be disbanded, and he 
accomplished his purpose in his own way. 

XXYI. 

When the various companies reached their destinations, no 
longer held together by the bond which union had before given, 
they thought they had seen enough of military life. They had 
fared roughly ; and their surplus chivalry had so completely 
oozed out of the holes in their coats, that they no longer had 
courage enough to be dangerous ; and — fearing they would not 
get out of the country before the Proclamation was issued — 
they made the best of their way to the United States. In thirty 
days they had all disappeared ; and when the finale was known 
throughout the country, every man felt that Houston had saved 
the nation from the deepest peril. It was, in fact, a stroke of 
bold, but sagacious policy, which none but a man like him would 
have dared to attemot. General Felix Huston was plotting 



190 Houston's steadying hand. 

at the Capital; but before he knew what the President was 
doing, his army was disbanded. 

• XXYII. 

About this time a Land Law was passed, under which all the 
troubles about titles have grown up. Its object was speculation, 
and many voted for it anticipating enormous gains. Houston 
vetoed it in one of his ablest state papers. But his veto was not 
supported, and the law went into operation. A few years showed 
its malign and fatal fruits. It opened the door to all sorts of 
frauds, and was a fruitful source of lasting Utigation. This was 
but a single specimen of the recklessness of legislation in the 
Congress of Texas. (During Houston's two terms he issued not 
less than eighty vetoes. ) Had there not been a firm and intelli- 
gent statesman at the head of the Government, no man can tell 
where such Congresses would have carried the Nation. 

XXYIII. 

Another Law was passed, authorizing an excessive issue of 
Promissory Notes. This also the President vetoed, and he 
declared that if the measure prevailed, the paper would soon 
depreciate ten to one. He arrested this fatal proceeding for a 
time. It passed under the administration of his successor, and 
his prophecy was abundantly fulfilled. 

XXIX. 

During the year 1837, the country was agitated by occasional 
alarms of Mexican and Indian invasions — but Houston was on 
the alert, and nothing of the kind took place. The utmost 
confidence in his administration prevailed among the people ; 
and the beautiful spectacle was presented of an industrious and 



PROSPERITY OF TEXAS. 191 

increasing population, which had just recovered from the shock 
and the devastation of a powerful invading army, and environed 
with Mexican and Savage foes,' quietly and successfully prose- 
cuting the arts of peace. Houston proclaimed trade and inter- 
course between Mexico and Texas, and caused his Proclamation 
to be printed and circulated in both languages. Trade grew up 
rapidly ; the frontier counties were repopulated ; and the tide of 
emigration was gradually flowing towards the Mexican borders. 
Caravans of horses and mules came into Texas, with large 
quantities of silver and merchandise ; good feeling was fast 
growing up, and continued to increase. Men, on both sides of 
the line, were now anxious for peace. The Mexican people had 
nothing to gain in battle, and had the renewal of hostilities 
depended on the vote of the Mexican population, both countries 
would have been blessed with lasting peace. 

XXX. 

We must now close our brief account of Houston's first 
administration. The proposition for annexation had been 
steadily pressed upon the attention of the Government at 
Washington. But the Texan ministers received little encour- 
agement, and as Texas could promise herself no advantage 
from further negotiations, Houston withdrew the proposition. 
He believed that any further attempts to consummate that 
great measure, would prejudice Texas in the eyes of other 
nations ; and in withdrawing the proposal, his conduct met the 
approval of the nation. 

XXXI. 

His Presidential term closed the 12th of December, 1838. 
He went out of office, leaving a Government perfectly 
organized ; with officers of ability, integrity, and economy in 



192 LAW-ABIDING MEN. 

every department of the State. The nation was not more than a 
million and a half in debt, with about $600,000 of Promissory 
Notes in circulation. Texas had peace with the Indians and 
commerce with Mexico. The feuds between the two nations 
were dying away, and the Promissory Notes were at par. This 
circumstance is, perhaps, the clearest and most convincing 
proof of the great ability and integrity with which Houston had 
conducted the Government. There was little specie in the 
country — how these notes were ever to be redeemed the people 
did not know — but they said, " As long as Old Sam is at the 
helm the ship is safe." They were voyaging through stormy 
seas, but they knew they were sailing with Caesar. 

XXXII. 

No man was ever confronted with greater difficulties in the 
beginning of his administration — for the mild but firm sway of 
Constitutional Law had to be substituted in the place of 
anarchy and confusion, over a reckless people who had long 
been accustomed to the unrestrained liberty of the frontier, 
where no man looked for protection but in his own right arm. 
During these revolutionary times, too, even in the older settle- 
ments, the ordinary course of justice had been suspended, and it 
was no strange thing that such men should not at once yield to 
the high supremacy of Constitutional Law. The very same 
elements of character, which have long made the Anglo-Saxons 
the most law-abiding people on the globe, have always made 
;hem the most lawless frontier-men. Men who choose their 
lomes in the distant forest or prairie, are slow to transfer their 
)rotection from their rifles, which never miss fire, to tardy 
juries, which seldom mete out justice. How long was it before 
hat wonderful People, that first scared the wild beasts from 
>he solemn forests of the Tiber, voted to abide by the awards of 



Houston's first term ends. 193 

the Temple of Justice ! And how many centuries did our 
ancestors roam over the beautiful Island of Britain, dressed in 
the skins of wild beasts, before they would listen to the stern 
utterances of Judicial Tribunals I But Houston could sway 
those reckless frontier settlers by the mild sceptre of Civil Law, 
as easily as he had swayed them by the stern despotism of the 
camp. 

XXXIII. 

But while he was sucessfully accomplishing those benign 
changes, and rearing the noble structure of civil government, he 
was not only harassed by petty intrigues, but confronted with 
formidable combinations. The same clique of small but ambi- 
tious men, who had, from the beginning, busied themselves in 
Inventing means, to undermine the castle which they could not 
overthrow, while Houston was bleeding on the field, or toiling 
anxiously in the Cabinet, finding all their intrigues fruitless, at 
last cemented themselves as well as they could, into one organ- 
ized conspiracy, b'ent upon his destruction. Their history would 
be a story of all that is low in faction, and mean in selfish- 
ness. But -we have neither time nor inclination to chronicle 
their doings — nor would we snatch them from the oblivion to 
which they have hastened. 



XXXIY. 

Houston's conduct met with the warmest approval through- 
out the country, and he would have been the almost unanimous 
choice of the people, had he been eligible to the office, the next 
term. But the 2d Section of the Third Article of the fconsti- 
tution declared— that, '' The First President elected by the 
people shall hold his office for the term of two years, and shall 

9 



194 VALEDICTORY ADDRESS. 

be ineligible during the next succeeding term." An accident 
gave the Presidency to Mr. Lamar. Just before the election 
his rival died ! — and no other candidate was brought forward. 

XXXV. 

It had been said that the President Elect would be the idol 
of the State, and that Houston's power was gone. The hour of 
his resignation came, and the largest concourse of people, ever 
seen in Texas, gathered. An attempt had been made to pre- 
vent the retiring President from delivering his Yaledictory 
Address — the arrangements of the Inauguration Committee 
utterly excluded him. But when the fact was known, a burst 
of indignation went np from the vast multitude — the Committee 
and their arrangements were all set aside, and the name of the 
Hero of San Jacinto was on every tongue. 

XXXVI. 

When he came forward in the porch of the Capitol, and the 
people gazed upon his lofty, ample, and heroic form, relieved 
against the portrait of Washington, suspended behind him, a 
wild shout of enthusiasm rent the sky. He spoke three hours, 
and we have been told by those who heard him, that the dense 
thousands before him swayed to and fro under the impetuous 
storm of his eloquence, like a forest swayed by a strong wind. 
He had unrolled the scroll of the history of Texas — he por- 
trayed her future policy, and dwelt upon her great destiny 
if that policy were pursued. He enjoined most solemnly good 
faith with all nations — economy in the government and in indi- 
viduals — the cultivation of peace with the Indians — he warned 
the people against faction and the rancor of party spirit, and he 
implored them not to treasure up their hopes in annexation or 



.Houston's blessing on his republic. 195 

treaties, but to rely upon their own public and private virtue — 
to be just and magnanimous with all men and with all nations. 
And in conclusion, when he took his farewell of the people he \ 

Cloved, he extended his broad arms, and poured down upon them j 
from his great heart the benediction of the patriot, and the 1 
soldier, as the tears streamed from his face. When he ceased, / 
all was still but the deep murmur of subdued feeling, and that/ 
vast multitude of frontiersmen all in tears ! 






196 THE NEW PRESIDENT. 



SECTION ELEVENTH. 



THE LEGISLATOR. 



I. 

The new President began his administration by opposing 
everything that had been pursued and recommended by Hous- 
ton. In his Inaugural Address he recommended the extermi- 
nation of the Indians — pronounced a violent Philippic against 
Annexation — advocated the establishment of a huge National 
Bank, and inculcated a splendid Government. 



11. 

The first appropriation for frontier defence was one and a 
half million of Treasury Notes, and another half million for the 
civil list — without a dollar to base the issues upon. A regular 
army of two Regiments was to be raised for exterminating the 
frontier Tribes, A law was passed to remove the Seat of Gov- 
ernment to some point N. W. of the San Antonio Road. Com- 
missioners were appointed by Congress from its own body, 
contrary to the Constitution, to perform this act. The entire 
object of the movement was speculation. With land scrip, 
which they had procured, and certificates of head-rights granted 
to settlers, they dispatched Surveyors to locate land around the 
spot where Austin now stands — at the extremest settlement of 
the Republic even at this day. The expense of removal, with 



RUINOUS POLICY OK LAMAR. 197 

the erection of suitable buildings, caused an additional issue of 
Promissory Notes. The new Capital was so far from the settle- 
ments, that the plank had to be carried thirty miles. 

III. 

The Republic soon lost confidence in the Administration — the 
depression of the currency naturally followed. And yet, in this 
state of embarrassment of the finances, and while Texas was at 
peace with Mexico, the President caused a proposition to be 
introduced into both Houses, to conduct an Expedition to Santa 
Fe, through a wilderness and Prairie more than five hundred 
miles. The proposition was made in both Houses at the same 
time, and by both rejected. But the President ordered the Ex- 
pedition during the recess of Congress in 1840, and upwards of 
three hundred armed men started on a warlike expedition to a 
distant country. Its disasters are too well known to need a 
relation. The President appointed a Governor for Santa Ee — a 
Custom House Officer and a Military Commandant, and organ- 
ized a Territorial Government. All his plans subsequently fell 
into the hands of the enemy, when the men were captured, and 
were a moving cause for the cruelty with which they were 
treated. The Expedition flooded the country with another 
enormous issue of paper ^^ proirdses to pay money," unauthorized 
by the Constitution or Congress. The horses on that Expe- 
dition cost, on an average, a thousand dollars each, the currency 
of the President had become so depreciated. Costly arms and 
munitions of war had been abstracted from the public arsenal by 
Presidential edict — the country was robbed of a large number 
of its most chivalrous men — the public wagons and means of 
transportation were laid hold of, and a piece of artillery, with 
Miralieau B. Lamar inscribed on its breech, dragged through 
the Prairies that immense distance, to become the trophy of 



198 THK SANTA FE EXTKIJITIOX. 

the enemies of Texas, and afford an illustration of the stupidity 
of the President, and the degradation of the nation. 



lY. 

This expedition revived the hostilities between Texas and 
Mexico, which, but for it, would have slept, perhaps, for ever. 
Houston had left the two countries really at peace, and the sole 
cause we have ever been able to ascertain for the renewal of 
hostiUties, was this silly and lamentable Expedition. It is to be 
remarked, that for some time previous to this Expedition, Mr. 
Lamar had sent Commissioners to Gen. Arista, and his object 
is supposed, by his friends, to have been to propose a Union of 
the Northern Provinces with Texas, forming a great Power, 
over whose government he w\as to be placed. The sagacious 
Arista took advantage of the incompetency of his friend, and 
returned Commissioners. They were in Austin when the Santa Fe 
Expedition took up its line of march, and witnessed the fooHsh 
display. What passed between " the high contracting parties," 
is not known with certainty, for the facts have never been 
officially disclosed. The world knows the result. Arista seems 
to have given into the plan, for one thing is certain, the Expe- 
dition started from Austin with a guide, who had long resided 
in Mexico, and spoke the language perfectly ; and the command- 
ing officers charged him with their betrayal at San Miguel and 
Santa Ee. When the guide got them many days in the wilder- 
ness, and the miseries of their situation began to press heavily 
on them, he abandoned them in their calamity, and never was 
heard of again. The object of Arista doubtless was to have 
them conducted into the solitudes of the wilderness, and there 
left to perish — if this should fail, the authorities of San Fe, being 
duly informed, were to receive, betray and then capture them. 
The blame of these proceedings is to be cast upon the President, 



L A M A Pw ADMINISTRATION. 199 

V. 

During his administration, be sent two ministers to Vera 
Cruz — but neither of them was received ; and they returned, to 
the disgrace of Texas. There was no method or consistency 
in anything he did. That he wished to be distinguished and 
wished well to his adopted country, there is no doubt ; but he 
was a feeble and puerile statesman. In civil affairs, he was 
a great schemer. One day, his hobby was a National Bank ; 
another, it was a great National Road ; a third, it was an alli- 
ance with Mexico, by his marrying the daughter of some dis- 
tinguished public functionary of that country ; for the diplo- 
matist supposed his alliance with some opulent family would 
be tantamount to an alliance between the two nations. One 
day, he must make war upon one tribe of Indians ; the next 
day, upon another. His first great exploit, when his adminis- 
tration began, was to attack the Cherokees and drive them 
from their possessions between the Kueces and Sabine rivers, 
where they had been settled longer than the Texan colonists 
themselves. They had been invited by Mexico from the United 
States, and laud had been assigned, and great inducements held 
out to them. They had settled there, and were quietly and 
inoffensively pursuing their avocations. In 1835, the Consulta- 
tion had guaranteed to that tribe undisturbed possession of their 
territory, by a solemn assurance, signed by each member of the 
Consultation. A treaty had been subsequently made with the 
tribe (recognizing the same rights and guarantee) by Houston 
and other Commissioners, and this treaty had been ratified by 
the Consultation. The Convention which declared their Inde- 
pendence, had recognized this as well as all other acts of the 
Consultation as valid. A more solemn ratification of a treaty 
could not have been made. 



200 EXTERMIKATION OF THE INDIANS. 

YI. 

Mr. Lamar began his administration by carrying out that 
section of his Inaugural Address, in which he had recommended 
the extermination of the Indians. The Cherokees were a peace- 
ful, industrious, and profitable community. The arts had made 
considerable progress among them, and they lived nearly as 
comfortably as white men. During the hostilities with Mexico, 
they had been prevented by the influence of Houston and Rusk 
from going over to the enemy, and they had made great 
advances in civilization during Houston's Presidency. They 
looked upon the Texans as their friends, and Houston as their 
"Father." With a force of tOO men, a portion of whom had 
fought at San Jacinto, Lamar commenced his war of extermina- 
tion against " Houston's jpet Indians." His force was some five 
times superior, and of course he carried ruin to the poor Red 
men's homes ! 

This treatment of the Cherokees and other tribes spread 
scenes of rapine and murder from the Red River to the Rio 
Grande. Even the President's two regiments of regulars in the 
field could not secure frontier protection. 



VII. 

In the disorders of Yucatan, when a separation from Mexico 
was spoken of, Mr. Lamar entered into a treaty of alliance with 
a minister sent to him for that purpose, and, without the concnr- 
rence of the Senate or the ratification of the treaty, ordered the 
Texan Navy to sail to the coast of Yucatan. That Province 
was then an integral part of Mexico, and had not proclaimed 
revolt or independence. 



LA mar's statesmanship. 201 

VIII. 

Stich were some of the acts of this puerile administration. 
We should not have glanced at them, even in so brief a manner, 
had it not been necessary to give, the reader an idea of the state 
of the country when Houston's second term began. Lamar, 
who had found the Government perfectly organized, suc- 
ceeded in reducing the country to the very verge of ruin. All 
the difficulties that had lain in the way of the advancement of 
Texas, Houston had successfully overcome. Disinterested and 
sagacious spectators of the progress of affairs beyond the 
Sabine, have often been heard to say, that in no portion of the 
world, had civil government ever been established and consoli- 
dated in so short a space of time. This was as much the work 
of Houston, as the victory of San Jacinto had been, although in 
both instances he was surrounded and aided by brave and true 
men, or he never could have done it. He left the domestic and 
foreign relations, the finances and the administration of law, the 
agriculture and the commerce of Texas, all in a sound, peaceful, 
flourishing state. 

IX. 

When Mr. Lamar left the administration, what was the state 
of the nation ? He had committed outrages upon peaceful 
Indian tribes, and kindled the flames of savage war all along 
the borders of Texas. He had sent a hostile marauding Expe- 
dition into the very heart of the Mexican Provinces, and sent 
the navy to aid a revolting territory in making war upon 
Mexico, and now she was rousing all her force for a new 
invasion of Texas. He had quadrupled the national debt, and 
squandered the public treasure, till Texan securities depreciated 
ten to one. The people had lost all respect for the Govern- 
ment, and confidence in its stability. The mail routes had been 

9* 



202 HOUSTON SAVES THE YOUXG REPUBLIC. 

broken up, profligacy prevailed, and the social compact began 
to be regarded by the orderly and patriotic everywhere as 
virtually dissolved. 

^. 

But Lamar's term had nearly expired, and the eyes of all 
men, who surveyed with gloomy forebodings the ruin that 
seemed to threaten the country, were now turned once 
more anxiously upon Houston. Even the lawless and the 
desperate began to fear the result of their crimes, and with a 
united voice, the man, who had already twice saved the country, 
was called a third time to the helm. Houston was one of the 
few men who believed that the IN'ation and the Government 
could be saved, and he came forward to the rescue. 'No Con- 
ventions were obliged to nominate him. There was an almost 
universal feeling that no other man could save Texas, and Texas 
made him her President for the second time, the very first hour 
the Constitution would allow her to do it. 



XI. 

During Lam^''s Administration, Houston had consented to 
represent his District in the Congress of 1839-40, and again in 
1840-41, and it was well that he had, for he not only, arrested 
the tide of evil — he prevented a dissolution of the Government. 
On a certain occasion, after a stormy debate, Congress was 
about to adjourn sine die. The members publicly proclaimed 
that all hope of carrying on the Government was gone, and they 
were determined to end the farce by going home. Houston 
rose in the midst of the tempest, as the members were leaving 
their seats, and addressed the Speaker. There never was a 
time when that man could not get a hearing, and the rush to 



A CRISIS NOBLY MET. 203 

the door stopped. " Let us hear old Sam," was the voice on 
every side, 

XII. 

The crowd began to return — members gradually resumed 
their seats and dropped their hats — they pressed up around 
him — the House became still, and not ten minutes went by be- 
fore nothing was heard throughout the hall but the rich, deep 
voice that had echoed over the field of San Jacinto. No idea 
of the speech can be given but by telling the result. He closed 
by reading a resolution, " that the House adjourn till to-morrow 
morning at the usual hour," and not a member voted against 
it ! They flocked around him, and so universal was the feeling, 
that but for him the Government would have gone to pieces, 
that even his old enemies seized him by the hand, and thanked 
him " for saving the country." 



204 



SECTION TWELFTH. 

AGAIN PRESIDENT. 
I. 

He was inaugurated the secoud time, ou the 13th of Decem- 
ber, 1841. His Message was hardly delivered before the news 
came of the capture of the Santa Fe Expedition. This was the 
first greeting he had, in office, of the fatal results of the policy 
of his predecessor. He, however, began immediately to bethink 
himself of the redemption of the unfortunate men who had been 
deluded away into the wilderness — for the lives of Texan soldiers 
seemed to be as dear to him as they could have been if they had 
been his own children. 

II. 

The Government was now in an infinitely worse state than it 
had been when he took the reins five years before. Then it was 
a chaos — now it was a ruin. The body politic had fallen into 
premature and inflammatory decay. It was not a disease only, 
but a relapse. The Treasury was not only empty, but millions 
in debt ; and not another dollar could be borrowed in Christen- 
dom. The Promissory Notes and Liabihties of the Government 
depreciated ten to one, and they were postponed, but not repudi- 
ated. The money had been squandered, but the debt must be 
paid. But Texas could at that time have no more paid it than 
Parliament could pay the Debt of England. But something 



DIFFICULTIES TO OVERCOME. 205 

had to be doue. Houston proposed a new currency called the 
Exchequer System — its entire issues were not to exceed 
$200,000. He had asked as a guarantee for their redemption, 
the Customs of the country, and certain tracts of lands, amount- 
ing to about three million acres. While in Congress, he had 
procured an act to be passed, declaring these lands not subject 
to location. But now the private interests of members were to 
be interfered with, and although Congress hypothecated the 
Customs, they would not pledge the lands. 

III. 

The President was fully aware of the opposition that was 
combining against him. The same hostile clique which had 
attempted to ruin him whenever he was in power, and who had 
come so near ruining the country when they had power them- 
selves, were now determined to control the appointments under 
the new administration. But all attempts to constrain his 
policy proved as ineffectual as they had hitherto done. He 
chose for his cabinet officers men in whom he had unlimited con- 
fidence, and they were among the most enlightened and firm 
statesmen of Texas. Mr. Jones, afterwards President, became 
Secretary of State ; Col. Hockley, a warm patriot and a devoted 
friend of Houston in all his struggles. Secretary of War and 
Marine ; Wm. H. Dangerfield, Secretary of the Treasury, and G. 
W. Terrell, Attorney-General. During these turbulent times, 
when prominent men declared openly that they would ruin 
Houston's administration, even if they had to do it by a revolu- 
tion, multitudes of broken-down speculators and politicians from 
the United States were continually flocking into Texas ; and as 
they found little chance of Thinning distinction in the new field 
they had chosen, they joined the ranks of the opposition, and 
devoted themselves zealously to the ruin of the State. 



206 DARK PROSPECTS FOR TEXAS. 

IV. 

But Houston had marked out his policy, and he went calmly 
and firmly on to its execution. His first measure was to 
dispatch a minister to Washington, to open negotiations for the 
annexation of Texas. His first object was annexation — if this 
failed, his next was the recognition of the independence of 
Texas by Mexico ; and if he failed in both, he was resolved to 
open negotiations with France and England, and enter into 
some treaty or alliance which would secure peace to Texas, 
extend her commerce, and advance her prosperity. His next 
movement was to recall the Navy, which Mr. Lamar had 
dispatched to help on a revolt in Yucatan. 



In the meantime, the country was absolutely stripped of all 
her defences. A wide coast and a broad sea were open to 
the depredations of the enemy ; the Santa Fe expedition and 
the league with Yucatan had given Mexico every provocation 
for a renewal of hostilities ; and the outrages committed upon 
the Indian tribes, had broken the amity that had subsisted. 

VI. 

In this exposed situation of the country, when an irruption 
from the frontiers, or an invasion from Mexico, might be rea- 
sonably apprehended, Houston recommended Congress to raise 
a company of sixty men to protect the archives — for there was 
then no military force in the field. Congress refused to grant 
the subsidies necessary, and adjourned the 5th of February. 
He soon after started for Houston, to bring his family to the 
seat of government. While he was at Galveston, in the early 



TEXAS AGAIN INVADED. 20T 

part of March, the iiews came of the invasion by Yasquez. The 
intelligence spread the deepest alarm throughout the country. 
All along the western border, families were seen flying from 
their habitations towards the interior. The public mind was 
stirred by the wildest apprehensions. Everybody knew the 
provocation that had been given to the enemy — the follies and 
the disasters of Santa Fe seemed but a prelude to another 
Goliad or Alamo slaughter — the coast was without protection, 
and no army concentrated to march on the invader. 

Yll. 

Suddenly all the intrigues and conspiracies against Houston 
ceased.* The very men who had been foremost to threaten the 
overthrow of his administration in the storm of a revolution, 
were now the most active in stimulating their neighbors to pre- 
pare for approaching disasters. Committees of vigilance and 
safety were everywhere organized, and all those means resorted 
to v/hich are called into requisition in revolutionary times. 
Houston's orders at this time, show that he did not believe the 
enemy would remain long in the country. The event proved 
that the Mexicans had already made a precipitate retreat 
beyond the Kio Grande, after committing outrages upon the 
citizens of San Antonio. 



YIII. 

In the meantime, the press throughout the South and West 
had displayed great sympathy for the cause of Texas, and rely- 
ing upon the sensation caused in the United States by the news 
of the reported invasion and the miscarriage of the Santa Fd 
expedition, Houston made an appeal to the American people. 
He sent agents to the United States to receive contributions, 



208 TEXAS PREPARES FOR ANOTHER STRUGGLE. 

and procure volunteers. He issued a Proclamation, in which he 
distinctly required that all troops which came should be per- 
fectly armed and provisioned for a campaign of six months — 
since Texas had no means of doing it herself. Several hundred 
volunteers went to Texas, in direct violation of the Proclamation — 
for they went without arms and without provisions. Contri- 
butions were merely nominal. Some generous individuals in 
Greorgia raised something over $500 at a public meethig — but 
all that was raised besides, throughout the United States, and 
reported to the government of Texas, in arms, ammunition, pro- 
visions, equipments and money, did not amount to five hundred 
dollars ! 

IX. # 

In June, Houston called an extra Session of Congress, to 
consider the state of the country, and devise means for national 
defence. They debated and legislated without much formality 
or delay, for the impression was general, that if anything was 
to be done, it had better be done quickly. So, too, all wise 
men would have said, " if ^twere i(?e/rdone." But their de- 
liberations ended in passing a bill which invested Houston with 
dictatorial powers, and appropriated ten million acres of the 
public domain, to carry on a campaign. But this came no 
nearer making a provision for war, than a resolution appropriat- 
ing ten million acres of blue sky, and conferring dictatorial 
power upon the north wind ! For there was not a dollar of 
money in the treasury to pay agents to go and dispose of the 
land, and Houston was the last man to make use of dictatorial 
powers in resisting the encroachments of a Dictator. 

X. 

But Congress thought they had acquitted themselves like 



THREATS AGAINST HOUSTON, 209 

men — and their disposition, too, probably, was good enough, 
but it had no more efficacy than tlie disposition of the man who 
willed in his last testament all his debts to be paid, for in 
neither case could the executor find anything had been left 
to pay the debts with. Apprehensions had been felt, while the 
bill was under debate, that Houston would veto it, and the time 
he could constitutionally keep it had nearly gone by. The 
excitement was intense ; the Capital was filled with angry 
and desperate men, and their noisy clamor spread over the 
country. All sorts of accusations were brought against the 
Executive, and he was plied with threats from every quarter. 
He was told that his life would pay the forfeit if he vetoed the 
bill. His friends, who apprehended his assassination, gathered 
around him, and besought him not to hazard a veto, for it 
would end in the ruin of himself and his country. At last the 
ebullitions of excitement began to subside, but they were 
followed by demonstrations of a deeper and more desperate feel- 
ing. For two weeks, few, even of his friends, approached the 
President's house, and when they did, they stole there under the 
shadow of night ; — assassins, in the meantime, were lurking 
around his dwelling. Even his Cabinet officers began to talk 
about resigning. 

XI. 

But in the midst of all this storm, which few men could have 
resisted, Houston was calm and cheerful. He stationed no 
guard around his house ; he had no spies on the alert ; he did 
not even inquire v.^hat was said in Congress, or done in the 
streets. The blinds and the windows of his dwelling were wide 
open, and he was often seen walking across his parlor, con- 
versing cheerfully with his family. His wife, whom he had 
married in 1840 — one of the most accomplished and gifted of 
women — reposed confidently upon his character, and she calmly 



210 A VETO AGAINST DICTATORIAL I' O W E K . 

and confidingly sustained him by her placid and intellectual con- 
versations. Long after the lights had been extinguished 
through the town, and sullen, desperate, armed men were 
gathered in secret meetings to j^lot, and counterplot, the gay 
voice of his wife, mingling with the tones of the harp and the 
piano, which she had carried with her to the wilderness, was 
heard coming forth from the open windows of Houston's dwelling. 

XII. 

All this must seem strange to the reader, without doubt, 
but w^e shall very soon solve the mystery. It was a fearful 
crisis ; but Houston was equal to it, and we know of no act of 
his life in which he gave such indubitable evidence that nature 
had lavished upon him those rare gifts which make up the really 
great man. The reader, too, will agree with us. 

When the time came, the veto was sent up to Congress. lu 
it he showed that they had utterly and totally failed to accom- 
plish the object for which he had called them together. They 
had proclaimed war against a powerful and organized foe, but 
they had made no provision for carrying it on. The President 
had not the means of buying a pound of powder. If they 
would provide the means for a campaign, he would head it him- 
self, if necessary ; but without money, no army could be made 
ready to take the field, and any attempt at hostilities would 
only bring down upon Texas universal contempt. He also 
dwelt upon the danger of the precedent they had established, in 
conferring upon the Chief Magistrate of the country unlimited 
powers. The prerogatives of a dictator he never would accept, 
while they were fighting against that same power in a neigh- 
boring State. 

XIII. 

The veto was published, — a universal calm at once sue- 



A L E T T K R TO SANTA ANNA. 211 

ceeded, and the man wlio had been covered with maledictions, 
became the idol of the people. 



XIV. 

In the mcantmic, Geuei'al Houston had addressed the follow- 
ing Letter to Santa Anna, his former captive. It should now 
be carefully read, in justice to both. Thirteen years have since 
gone by ; but every year has given new significance to this 
luminous and important Letter. It furnishes -a complete confir- 
mation of this History : — 

Executive Department, 
City of Houston, Marcli 21, 1842. 

Most Excellent Sir : Your communications to Mr. Bee and General 
Hamilton, dated at the Palace of the Government of Mexico, have been 
recently presented to my notice. At the first convenient leisure, I have 
not failed to appropriate my attention to the subjects embraced within the 
scope of your remarks. 

They would have met a more ready attention had it not been for a 
marauding incursion made by a Mexican force on the defenceless town of 
San Antonio, on the inhabited frontier of Texas. Apprehending that the 
force had some other character more important than that of bandits and 
plunderers, commanded as it was by regular oflBcers, it produced a 
momentary excitement, and claimed the attention of the Executive. But, 
as the bandits have withdrawn, charaterizing their retreat by pillage and 
plunder, as has been usual with Mexicans, I am left at leisure to resume 
in tranquillity the duties of my station. 

In reference to your correspondence with Mr. Bee and General Hamilton, 
I have no remark to offer in relation to the communications which those 
gentlemen assumed the individual responsibility of making to you. The 
very nature of the correspondence manifests the fact that it was not done 
under the sanction of this government, but rests solely upon their action 
as individuals. Had your response regarded them in the light in which 
they were presented to you, it would have superseded the necessity of any 
notice from me. But as you have thought proper to laud my conduct as 
an individual, and refer to transactions connected with this country, with 



212 SANTA anna's POLITICAL CHARACTER. 

which I had official identity, and which I also at this time possess, and as 
you have taken the liberty, to an unwarrantable extent, to animadvert 
upon circumstances connected with Texas as a nation, I feel myself com- 
pelled by a sense of duty to refute a portion of the calumnies which you 
have presented to the world under the sanction of your official averment. 

You appear to have seized upon the flimsy pretext of confidential com- 
munications unknown to the officers of this government, and unknown to 
the world until divulged by you, for the purpose of manufacturing a 
capital of popularity at home, and which you have submitted to the 
world as a manifesto in behalf of what you are pleased to term the rights 
of a great nation. " by so many titles respectable."' 

"Whatever opinions you may have entertained in relation to the diffi- 
culties existing between Mexico and Texas cannot materially vary the 
facts and principles involved, nor will they materially influence the 
decision of mankind upon the justice of our cause. 

Decency and self-respect, at least, should have induced, on your part, 
the pursuit of a course different from that which you have adopted. The 
abuse and ribald epithets which you have applied to the citizens of this 
country, as well as those of the Mississippi valley of the United States, 
are doubtless characteristic of the individual who gave them utterance. 
So far as the people of this country are concerned, I shall refer mankind 
to a history of facts and circumstances connected with the settlement of 
the country. I shall pass by with slight notice your remarks relative to 
the people of the United States. So far as our origin is connected with 
them, and the unity of sympathy exists, we are proud to hail them as our 
kindred — kindred in blood, kindred in laws, kindred in all the ennobling 
attributes of humanity. They will hear your taunts of defiance with the 
same contempt and derision that Texans regard your silly gasconade. If 
they have heretofore sympathized with us in our struggle for liberty and 
independence, it was from a knowledge of the fact that we had been 
deceived and oppressed by Mexico, and that the cause in which we were 
engaged was that of humanity struggling against usurpation and despot- 
ism. 

The people of Texas were invited to migrate to this country for the pur- 
pose of enjoying equal rights and constitutional liberty. They were 
promised the shield of the Constitution of 182-i. adopted by Mexico. Con- 
tiding in this pledge, they removed to the country to encounter all the 
privations of a wilderness, under the alluring promises of free institutions. 
Other reasons operated also. Citizens of the United States had engaged 



ANGLO-SAXONS, AND MEXICANS. 213 

in the revolution of Mexico, in 1812. They fought gallantly in the 
achievement of Mexican independence, and many of them survive, and to 
this day occupy the soil which their privations and valor assisted in 
achieving. On their removal here, they brought with them no aspirations 
or projects but such as were loyal to the Constitution of Mexico. They 
repelled the Indian savages ; they encountered every discomfort ; they 
subdued the wilderness, and converted into cultivated fields the idle waste 
of this now prolific teritory. Their courage and enterprise achieved that 
which the imbecility of your countrymen had either neglected, or left for 
centuries unaccomplished. Their situation, however, was not disregarded 
by Mexico, though she did not, as might have been expected, extend to 
them a protecting and fostering care, but viewed them as objects of 
cupidity, rapacity, and at least jealousy. 

The Texans, enduring the annoyances and oppressions inflicted upon 
them, remained faithful to the Constitution of Mexico. In 1832, when an 
attempt was made to destroy that Constitution, and when you, sir, threw 
yourself forward as its avowed champion, you were sustained with all the 
fidelity and valor that freemen could contribute. On the avowal of 
your principles, and in accordance with them, the people put down the 
serviles of despotism at Anahuac, Velasco, and Nacogdoches. They 
treated the captives of that struggle with humanity, and sent them to 
Mexico subject to your orders. They regarded you as the friend of liberty 
and free institutions ; they hailed you as a benefactor of mankind ; your 
name and your actions were lauded, and the manifestations you had given 
in behalf of the nation, were themes of satisfaction and delight to the 
Texan patriots. " 

You can well imagine the transition of feeling which ensued mi your 
accession to power. Your subversion of the Constitution of 1824-, your 
establishment of centralism, your conquest of Zacatecas, characterized by 
every act of voilence, cruelty, and rapine, inflicted upon us the profound- 
est astonishment. "We realized all the uncertainty of men awakening to 
reality from the unconsciousness of delirium. In succession came your 
order for the Texans to surrender their private arms. The niask was 
thrown aside, and the monster of despotism displayed in all the*habiliments 
of loathsome detestation. Then was presented to Texans the alternative 
of tamely crouching to the tyrant's lash, or exalting themselves to the 
attributes of freemen. They chose the latter. To chastise them for their 
presumption induced your advance upon Texas, with your boasted veteran 
army, mustering a force nearly equal to the whole population of this 



214 HISTORY OF THE MEXICAN DICTATOR. 

country at that time. You besieged and took the Alamo ; but under 
what circumstances ? Not those, surely, which should characterize a gene- 
ral of the nineteenth century. You assailed one hundred and fifty men, 
destitute of every supply requisite for the defence of that place. Its 
brave defenders, worn by vigilance and duty beyond the power of human 
nature to sustain, were at length overwhelmed by a force of nine thousand 
men, and the place taken. I ask you sir, what scenes followed ? "Were 
they such as should characterize an able general, a magnanimous warrior, 
and the President of a great nation numbering eight millions of souls ? 
No. Manliness and generosity would sicken at the recital of the scenes 
incident to your success, and humanity itself would blush to class you 
among the chivalric spirits of the age of vandalism. This you have been 
pleased to class in the '-'succession of your victories ;•' and I presume you 
would next include the massacre at Goliad. 

Your triumph there, if such you are pleased to term it, was not the 
triumph of arms — it was the success of perfidy. Fannin and his brave 
companions had beaten back and defied your veteran soldiers. Although 
outnumbered more than seven to one, their valiant, hearty, and indomita- 
ble courage, with holy devotion to the cause of freedom, foiled every 
effort directed by your general to insure his success by arms. He had 
recourse to a flag of truce ; and when the surrender of the little patriot- 
band was secured by the most solemn treaty stipulations, what were 
the tragic scenes that ensued to Mexican perfidy ? The conditions of the 
surrender were submitted to you ; and, though you have denied the facts, 
instead of restoring them to liberty, according to the capitulation, you 
ordered them to be executed contrary to every pledge given them, con- 
trary to the rules of war, and contrary to every principle of humanity. 
Yet, at this day, you have the effrontery to animadvert upon tlie conduct 
of Texans relative to your captivity after the battle of San Jacinto. 

You have presumed to arraign the conduct of the then existing Cabinet, 
and to charge it with bad faith ; and though you are pleased to commend 
the conduct of the illustrious Stephen F. Austin, the father of Texas, 
and myself, for acts of generosity exercised towards .you, you take much 
care to insinuate that we only were capable of appreciating your proper 
merits. That you may no longer be induced to misconstrue acts of gene- 
rosity and appropriate them to the gratification of your, self-complacent 
disposition, I will inform you that they were acts of magnanimity charac- 
teristic of the nation to which we belong. They had nothing to do with 
your merits or demerits. The perfidy and cruelty which had been exer- 



DEFENCE OF TEXAS. 215 

cised towards our companions in arms did not enter into our calculation. 
Your sacrifice would not restore to our gallant companions their lives, 
nor to our country ttieir services. Although the laws of war would have 
justified the retaliation of your execution, yet it would have characterized 
the acts of a nation by passion and revenge ; and would have evinced to 
the world that individuals who had an influence on the destinies of a peo- 
ple were subject to the capricious impulses of vengeance, of which you 
had so recently set an example. 

So far as I was concerned in preserving your life and subsequent libera- 
tion, I Avas only influenced by considerations of mercy, humanity, and the 
establishment of a naiional character. 

Humanity was gratified by your preservation. The magnanimous of all 
nations would have justified your release, had they known how little its 
influence was dreaded by the Texans. If, upon your return to Mexico, 
you should have power, and a disposition to redeem the pledges you had 
voluntarily made to myself, as well as this Government, of an earnest 
disposition to see the independence of Texas recognized by Mexico, I 
believe it would have a tendency to restore peace to the two nations, 
diminish the aggregate suff"erings of their citizens, and promote the pros- 
perity of both countries. In the event that you were not disposed to 
redeem the pledges thus given, but urge a prosecution of the war by 
Mexico against us, I wished to evince to mankind that Texans had mag- 
nanimity, resources, and confidence sufficient to sustain them against all 
your influence in favor of their subjugation. 

Your liberation was induced by such principles as these ; and though you 
tendered pledges, doubtless to facilitate and insure your release, they were 
received, but not accepted, as a condition. I believe that pledges made 
in duress are not obligatory upon the individual making them ; and, if 
you intend to exercise the influence which you declared you would, 
the unconditional liberty extended to you would interpose no obstacle to 
their fulfillment. 

Without adverting to any treaty stipulations which you had made 
with the Cabinet of Texas, I gave you your entire liberty and safe conduct 
to the city of Washington. 

You have asserted to the world that you have given no pledge to the 
Texan Government whatever of your disposition in favor of its separation 
from Mexico. That the tribunal to which you have appealed, may judge 
of the validity of your assertion, I shall submit with this communication a 
letter of yours addressed to me at Columbia, dated the 5th November, 



216 SANTA anna's TREATMENT BY HOUSTON. 

1836, after my determiaation to give you your liberty had been commu- 
nicated. I shall present it in the original, accompanied with its transla- 
tion into English. I will also give publicity to a veto which I communi- 
cated to the Senate, in consequence of a resolution of that honorable body 
respecting your detention as a prisoner. 

You have spoken of events subsequent to the battle of San Jacinto, and 
endeavor to convey the idea that promises had been extorted from you 
'•' under the rifles of a tumultous soldiery." I am at a loss to comprehend 
your meaning by this reference. When you were brought into the 
encampment as a prisoner, the second day after the battle, you were con- 
ducted to the presence of the commander-in-chief — not amidst noise and 
tumult, nor did any exist. When the character of tlie prisoner became 
known to the army, much curiosity was excited ; but there was no menace 
used nor violence oflered. You were treated with calmness, and every 
courtesy extended to you that our situation would afford. Had you been 
a private gentleman and friend, you could have received no greater faci- 
lities than those which were extended to you. As you desired, you were 
placed near my person, and were never sent with the rest of the pri- 
soners. You were informed that you could have your camp-bed and 
markee brought to my quarters, where I lay confined with my wound. 
You were permitted to command the services of your attendants. You 
were informed, also, that yoar baggage would be selected from the spoils 
taken by the army on the field ; which was accordingly done, and never 
inspected. These privileges were granted by my order. Your aide-de-camp, 
Colonel Almonte, and your private secretary, were permitted to remain 
with you in your markee. A guard was detailed for the purpose of allay- 
ing any apprehension you might have for your personal safety, and every 
liberty extended to you except your absolute release. 

You submitted propositions to me embracing the questions of the recog- 
nition of the Texan independence, and the termination of our struggle. I 
unequivocally refused the acceptance of any offer upon the subject of a 
treaty, alleging as reasons that we had a constitutional government, and 
that the subject would properly come before the Cabinet of Texas, the 
members of which would be present ia camp within a few days. You 
urged the further consideration of your propositions upon me, declaring 
that you would rather enter into stipulations with a general of the army 
than with the civil authorities of the country. I positively declined tak- 
ing any action upon them, and they were referred to the Cabinet on its 
arrival. Declining the consideration of your proposals myself, I required 



SANTA anna's CONDUCT. 2lT 

you to issue orders forthwith to the General next in command to evacuate 
Texas with the troops composing the Mexican army, and to fallbacli with 
them to Monterey. Orders to this effect were issued by you to General 
Filisola, and dispatched by an express, which could not overtake him, 
however, until he had reached the Colorado on his retreat, conducted in 
the greatest panic and confusion. Owing to his precipitate flight, and your 
execution" of my orders, the Mexicans were permitted to leave Texas with- 
out further molestation. 

In the meantime, General Adrian WoU, of the Mexican army, came 
into the encampment at San Jacinto without my knowledge, and not 
" upon my word or honor ;" nor was I apprised of his presence until I 
learned that he, together with his aid, had been traversing our lines. So 
soon as I was advised of this fact, I ordered them to my presence, and 
instructed them that such conduct would not be tolerated, and caused 
them to be placed under vigilance. This reason I deemed sufficient to 
detain General WoU as a prisoner of war. His subsequent conduct to 
Captain Dimitt was such as to justify any unfavorable opinion which I had 
formed of his character. He had rendered himself so obnoxious to the 
army, that, from a desire for his personal security, I did not permit his 
release until he could go in perfect safety. In no respect had the prisoners 
taken on that occasion reason of complaint. Their lives were all forfeited 
by the laws of war, conformably to the precedent which you had exhibited. 

General Cos, who had surrendered in 1835, a prisoner of war at San 
Antonio, where one hundred and ninety-five Texans stormed and took 
the Alamo, with the town, when it was defended by seventeen hundred 
regular troops of Mexico, was again taken prisoner at San Jacinto, after 
he had violated his parole of honor, by which he had forfeited his life to 
the law of arms. Yet such was the lenity of Texans that even he was 
spared — thereby interposing mercy to prevent reclamation being made 
for the brave Texans perfidiously massacred. 

From the 5th of May I had no connection with the encampment, nor the 
treatment which the prisoners received, until the month of October, when 
I was inducted into the office of Chief Magistrate of the nation. It is true 
that you were chained to an iron bar, but not until an attempt had been 
made to release you, with your knowledge and assent. A vessel had 
arrived at Orizimbo, on the Brazos, where you were confined. In pos- 
session of its captain were found wines and other liquors, mixed with poi- 
son for the purpose of poisoning the officers and guard in whose charge 
you were, and thereby insuring your escape. In consequence of the sen- 

10 



218 Houston's argument. 

sation produced by this circumstance, you were confined and treated in 
the manner you haTC so pathetically portrayed. 

Whilst confined by my wounds in San Augustine, I learned that it was 
the intention of the army to take you to the theatre of Fannin's massacre, 
and there to have had you executed. Upon the advertisement of this fact, I 
immediately sent an express to the army, solemnly protesting against any 
such act, and interposing every obstacle possible against your further moles- 
tation, or any action which might not recognize you as a prisoner of war. 

Your recent communications have necessarily awakened attention to 
these facts — otherwise they would have remained unrecited by me. Any 
part which I bore in the transaction is not related in imitation of the ego- 
tistical style of your communication. It is done alone for the purpose of 
presenting the lights of history. You have sought to darken its shades, 
and appeal to the sympathies and command the admiration of mankind, 
and have even invoked " the prismatic tints of romance." 

Now the tribunal to which you have appealed, will have an opportunity 
of contrasting the treatment which you and the prisoners taken at San 
Jacinto, received, with that of those who have fallen within your power, 
and particularly those perfidiously betrayed on a recent trading excursion 
to Santa Fe. You have endeavored to give that expedition the complexion 
of an invading movement upon the rights of Mexico. To believe you 
serious in the idle display of words made on this occasion, would be pre- 
senting an absurdity to the common sense of the age. Your fears may 
have given it a character different from that to which it was entitled. 
Examine the circumstances accompanying it. It was not an act of Texas. 
Congress had refused to sanction any enterprise of the kind. A number 
of individuals were anxious to open a lucrative trade (as they believed it 
would be) with Santa Fe. Such a commerce has been carried on for years 
by the citizens of the United States from Missouri ; and the preparations, 
connected with the fact that the citizens took with them a considerable 
amount of merchandise, show that their enterprise was not one of conquest 
or invasion. You may allege that it had connection with the Government, 
from the fact that the President identified himself with it, by furnishing 
arms to those connected with the project. This may have induced you to 
characterize the expedition as you have, in your tirade against Texas. 
Whatever part the President bore in this transaction was contrary to law, 
and in violation of his duty. A large portion of the people of Texas were 
apprised of the existence of such an enterprise. You doubtless would 
Insist that it had means of offence against Mexico. So far as their prepa- 



THE SANTA FE EXPEDITION. 219 

ration could give character to the undertaking, by carrying with them 
artillery and other munitions of war, it can be accounted for most readily. 
They had to pass through a wilderness six hundred miles from the frontier 
of Texas, before they could reach Santa Fe. It was reasonable to suppose 
that they would encounter many hostile tribes of Indians, and it was pro- 
per and necessary that they should be in a situation to repel any attacks 
made upon them, and, as their objects were pacific, they were justified in 
resisting aggression from any quarter. The instructions given to them by 
the President, did not contemplate hostilities, but that the enterprise would 
terminate without bloodshed and violence. Scientific gentlemen from 
Europe and the United States accompanied them, not for warlike purposes, 
but for the purpose of adding rich stores to the treasury of science. It 
had likewise been communicated to the people of Texas, that all the inha- 
bitants east of the Rio Grande were anxious to enjoy the benefits of our 
institutions. You cannot allege that you were not willing to admit the 
justice of our claims to the Rio Grande, or that you were not anxious to 
facilitate the object. Your communication to me on that subject is con- 
clusive. Texans were apprised of it from your repeated declarations to 
that effect while in this country, and on your way to Washington City. At 
the time the expedition started, no hostilities were carried on between 
this country and Mexico. Commissioners from General Arista, were at 
Austin at the time the party started for Santa Fe. They were kindly 
received, and made the most sincere profession of amity and reconciliation 
with this Government. They were treated with kindness, and corres- 
ponding commissioners appointed to General Arislu. To them every 
facility was extended, and they were permitted to return without molest- 
ation. This was the attitude of the two countries at that time. "Will you 
allege that this was not sanctioned by your Government, or will you 
insist that it was a trick of diplomacy? For myself, I would not have 
been deluded by any professions which might have been tendered to Texas 
by Mexico, when a departure from the most solemn pledges would result 
in injury to the former, and benefit to the latter. 

That the ministers of General Arista played their parts with fidelity to 
their instructions, I have no doubt, and that all the information that could 
be derived in relation to the trading company was faithfully transmitted 
to the Government of Mexico. Nor do I doubt but that the population of 
the northern parts of your country, so soon as the intelligence was 
received, were thrown into the utmost consternation, and a nation num- 
bering eight millions of people, inhabiting '' valleys, mountains, towns, 



220 NOBLE DEFENCE OF TEXAS. 

and large cities," *• by so many titles respectable," was convulsed at the 
apprehended approach of three hundred Texan traders ! But what has 
been the sequel of this expedition ? On their approach to the settlements 
of the Rio Grande .they obtained supplies from the inhabitants, not as a 
hostile and marauding party, but they paid a valuable consideration for 
every supply they obtained. They were met by the Mexican authorities 
with overtures of peace, assurances of friendship, and pledges of security, 
provided they would give up their arms for the purpose of tranquilizing 
the Mexican population. Detached, as the company was, into parties 
remote from each other, and deluded by pled'ges, they acquiesced 
in the wishes of the authorities of the country, thereby evincing 
to them that they had no disposition to disturb the tranquillity of the 
inhabitants, and that their objects were pacific. But no sooner were 
they in the power of the authorities than they were stripped of their 
clothing, deprived of everything valuable, treated in the most barbarous 
manner, and marched like convicts to the capital of Mexico. On their 
route every act of inhumanity, cruelty, and hatred was evinced. When 
their sick and helpless condition required the assistance of Christian 
charity and humanity, it was denied them. They were barbarously shot, 
their bodies mangled, and their corpses left unburied. The butchery of 
McAllister, Galphin, Yates, and others, appeal to Heaven and this nation 
for retribution upon the heads of their inhuman murderers. You may 
allege that you did not authorize the perpetration of these outrages, com- 
mitted upon men who had violated no rule of law known to this civilized 
age. This will be no excuse for you. Your sanction to these acts is as 
culpable as their perpetration was degrading to their authors. Their 
detention as prisoners by you, may gratify the malignity of little minds ; 
but the just, the chivalric, the brave, and the generous of all nations, may 
pity, but must despise your conduct. Had it not been for the faithless 
professions tendered to them, and their too ready belief, they could 
have maintained their position against all the forces of northern Mexico, 
and, if necessary, could have made good their retreat to their homes, 
defying the '• generous effort of the people of New Mexico." Your con- 
duct on this occasion will present your humanity and sense of propriety 
in very awkard contrast with the treatment extended to you and your 
followers after the victory of San Jacinto, being not, as you suppose, one 
of the '' freaks of fortune," but one of the accompaniments of that destiny 
which will mark the course of Texas until the difficulties between the two 
countries shall be satisfactorily adjusted. 



MEXICAN, AND AMERICAN CHARACTER. 221 

But you declare that you will not relax your exertions until you have 
subjugated Texas; that you ''have weighed its possible value," and that 
you are perfectly aware of the magnitude of the task which you have 
undertaken ; that you " will not permit a Colossus within the limits of 
Mexico ;" that our title is that of " theft and usurpation," and that " the 
honor of the Mexican nation" demands of you "the reclamation of 
Texas ;" that " if it were an unproductive desert, useless, sterile, yielding 
nothing desirable, and abounding only in thorns to wound the feet of the 
traveller, you would not permit it to exist as an independent government, 
in derision of your national character, your hearths and your individu- \ 
ality?^/ Allow me to assure you that our title to Texas has a high sane- ] 
tion /uS^ of purchase, because we have performed our conditions ; that 
of conquest, because we have been victorious ; it is ours because you can- 
not subdue us ; it has been consecrated ours by the blood of martyred 
patriots ; it is ours by the claims of patriotism, superior intelligence, and 
unsubduable courage. It is not a sterile waste or a desert ; it is the home 
of freemen — it is the land of promise — it is the garden of America. Every 
citizen of Texas was born a freeman, and he would die a recreant 
the principles imbibed from his ancestry, if he would not freely peril his 



ne i 

ry / 

to/ 
ills 

y. life in defence of his home, his liberty, and his country. V' 

y^ Although you are pleased to characterize our occupation of Texas and ^- 



defence of our imprescriptible rights as the " most scandalous robbery of 
the present age," it is not one-fourth of a century since Mexico perpe- 
trated a similar robbery upon the rights of the Crown of Spain. The 
magnitude of the theft may give dignity to the robbery. In that you 
have the advantage. That you should thus have characterized a whole 
nation I can readily account for. Heretofore you entertained the opinion 
that Mexico could never conquer Texas, and, if it were possible for her to 
drive every Texan from the soil, that Mexico could not maintain her 
position on the Sabine, and the retreat of her army would be the signal 
for the return of the Anglo-Saxon race, who would re-occupy their homes 
and pursue the Mexicans as far as the Rio Grande ; and that Mexico, in 
preservation of the integrity of the territory which she then possessed, 
would gain an advantage by abandoning all hopes of conquering Texas, 
and direct her attention to the improvement of her internal condition. 
Your recent opinions, as declared by you, appear to be at variance with 
these speculations, and are most vehemently avowed. It is an attribute 
of wisdom to change opinions upon conviction of error, and perhaps for it 
you are justifiable ; at least, I discover that you have one attribute of a 



222 DESPOTISM IN MEXICO. 

new convert : you are quite zealous and wordy in the promulgation of the 
doctrine which you have espoused. 

Sir, from your lenity and power Texans expect nothing— from your 
humanity less ; and when you invade Texas you will not find " thorns to 
wound the foot of the traveller," but you will find opposed to Mexican 
breasts, arms wielded by f^^emen of unerring certainty, and directed by a 
purpose not to be eluded.l/Texans war not for gewgaws and titles ; they 
battle not to sustain dictators or despot^^hey do not march to the field 
unwillingly, nor are they dragged to the *my in chains, with the mock- 
title of volunteers. For awhile they lay by the implements of husbandry, 
and seize their rifles ; they rally in defence of their rights ; and, when 
victory has been achieved, they return to the cultivation of the soil. 
They have laws to protect their rights. Their property is their own. 
They do not bow to the will of despots ; but they bow to the majesty of 
the Constitution and laws. They are freemen indeed. It is not so with 
your nation. From the alcalde to the dictator, all are tyrants in Mexico ; 
and the community is held in bondage, subject not to law, but to the 
will of a superior, and confined in hopeless subjection to usurpation. 

In an individual so intelligent as yourself, it does seem to me that you 
have evinced very bad taste by adverting to the subject of slavery, in the 
internal afi'airs of this country. Your opinions, whilst here, on this sub- 
ject, were fully and freely avowed. You then believed that it would be 
of great advantage to Mexico to introduce slave labor into that country ; 
that it would develop her resources, by enabling her to produce cotton, 
sugar, and coffee, for purposes of exportation ; and that without it she 
would be seriously retarded in her march to greatness and prosperity. 
Your sympathy and commiseration at present expressed, are no doubt 
very sincere, and I only regret that they partake so little of consistency. 
You boast that Mexico gave the noble and illustrious example of emanci- 
pating her slaves. The fact that she has the name of having done so, ha3 
enabled you to add another flourish to your rhetoric. But the examina- 
tion of facts for one moment will disclose the truth. The slaves of Mexico, 
you say, were emancipated. Did you elevate them to the c(^dition of 
freemen? No, you did not : you gave them the name of freedom, but you 
reduced the common people to the condition of slaves. It is not uncom- 
mon in Mexico for one dignitary, upon his hacienda, to control from one 
hundred to ten thousand human beings, in a state of bondage more abject 
and intolerable, than the negroes on any cotton plantation in this country. 
If an individual in Mexico owes but twenty-five cents, by application to an 



TEXAS AGAINST MEXICO. 223 

alcalde,, the creditor can have him, with his family, decreed to his service, 
and to remain in that state of slavery until he is able to pay the debt from 
the wages accruing from his labor, after being compelled to subsist hi3 
dependent family. This you call freedom ; and graciously bestow your 
sympathy upon the African race. The Abolitionists of the present day 
will not feel that they are not indebted to you for your support of their 
cause. Had some one else than the dictator of Mexico, or the self-styled 
" Napoleon of the West " — the subverter of the Constitution of 1824, the 
projector of centralism, and the man who endeavors to reduce a nation to 
slavery — become their advocate, they might have been more sensible of 
their obligation. Slavery is an evil ; it was entailed upon us by Mexico. 
So far as its increase can be prevented, our Constitution and laws have pre- 
sented every obstacle. They will be maintained to the letter : and on 
account of slavery, Texas, will incur no reproach. 

You tauntingly invite Texas to cover herself anew with the Mexican 
flag. You certainly intend this as mockery. You denied us the enjoy- 
ment of the laws under which we came to the country. Her flag was 
never raised in our behalf, nor has it been seen in Texas unless when dis- 
played in an attempt at our subjugation. We know your lenity — we 
know your mercy — we are ready again to test your power. You have 
threatened to plant your banner on the banks of the Sabine. Is this done 
to intimidate us ? Is it done to alarm us ? Or do you deem it the most 
successful mode of conquest ? If the latter, it may do to amuse the 
people surrounding you. If to alarm us, it will amuse those conversant 
with the history of your last campaign. If to intimidate us, the threat is 
idle. We have desired peace. You have annoyed our frontier — you 
have harassed our citizens — you have incarcerated our traders, after your 
commissioners had been kindly received, and your citizens allowed the 
privileges of commerce in Texas without molestation — you continue 
aggression — you will not accord us peace. We will have it. You 
threaten to conquer Texas — we will war with Mexico. Your pretensions, 
with ours, you have referred to the social world and to the God of Battles. 
We refer our cause to the same tribunals. The issue involves the fate of 
nations. Destiny must determine. Its course is only known to the 
tribunal of Heaven. If experience of the past will authorize speculations 
of the future, the attitude of Mexico is more " problematical " than that 
of Texas. 

In the war which will be conducted by Texas against Mexico, our incen- 
tive will not be a love of conquest ; it will be to disarm tyranny of its 



224 THE FORESHADOWING OF EMPIRE. 

power. "We will make no war upon Mexicaus, or their religion. Our 
efforts shall be made in behalf of the liberties of the people, and directed 
against the authorities of the country, and against your principles. We 
will exalt the condition of the people to representative freedom ; they 
shall choose their own rulers ; they shall possess their property in peace, 
and it shall not be taken from them to support an armed soldiery, for the 
purpose of oppression. 

With these principles, we will march across the Rio Grande : and 
believe me, sir, ere the banner of Mexico shall triumphantly float on the 
banks of the Sabine, the Texan standard of the single star, borne by the 
Anglo-Saxon race, shall display its bright folds in liberty's triumph on 
the Isthmus of Darien. 

With the most appropriate consideration, I have the honor to present 
you my salutation. 

SAM HOUSTON. 
To His Excellency, An'tomo Lopez de Santa Anna, 

President of the Republic of Mexico. 



XY. 

We are now obliged to cut short. our relation of events in 
detail, to give a brief account of other more important move- 
ments. Confidence began to be restored. One open rebellion 
against the laws of the country Houston put down by going to 
the scene, and calling out the militia. When desperadoes 
found there was a man at the head of affairs, who could not be 
trifled with, they soon disbanded, and the supremacy of law was 
again restored. A new set of men were in office — justice was 
efficiently administered — economy was observed, and although 
Mr. Lamar had saddled an enormous debt upon the country, 
which could not be discharged for a long time to come, yet 
public credit w\as being restored, and men began to feel proud 
of their Government. 

XVI. 

Houston had left no resource untried to effect the liberatioa 



HOUSTON^S EFFORTS FOR TEXAS. 225 

of the Santa Fe prisoners. He had appealed to all friendly 
Powers to mediate in their release. The Congress of Texas had 
adjourned, after the news of their capture had arrived, without 
doing anything to aid the President in restoring them to their 
liberty. They had been given up as doomed men ; they had 
gone to Santa Pe in violation of the law of nations, and with no 
constitutional authority from their Government. They had 
been thrown on Houston's hands ; his only reliance was on the 
terms of their capitulation, for he insisted that, even if they had 
been outlaws before, this had brought them within the pale of 
civilized warfare. We have no space to give the history of the 
negotiations that were carried on for the release of these brave 
but misguided men. Suffice it to say, that they w^ere liberated. 
Nor have we space to give the history of the Mier Expedition. 

XYII. 

Texas had now been repeatedly invaded by predatory Mexi- 
can bands, who seemed to have but two objects — to harass the 
nation they could not subdue, and pay up arrearages due to 
their soldiers from the treasury of Mexico, with spoils of the 
robber. Mexico was always talking about a grand campaign, 
but since the battle of San Jacinto, she had not dared to meet 
the revolted Province in honorable battle. The people of 
Mexico knew that the tyranny of her Dictators had lost them 
for ever that portion of their dominion ; and at no period did 
they wear the yoke so tamely, that the tyrant in power dared 
to leave the Capital to head any army of invasion. Whoever 
that tyrant may have been, he knew that his worst enemies were 
the Mexicans themselves ; his supremacy rested upon the 
presence of his troops in the city, and if he succeeded in con- 
solidating his power at home, and turned his face towards 
Texas, he was sure to be overtaken by a courier from the Capi- 

10* 



226 APPEAL TO THE GREAT POWERS. 

tal with the news, that his domiuion was ended, and another 
dictator had been proclaimed. In the opinion of the Texan Pre- 
sident, the time had come when the civilized world should inter- 
fere to end this contemptible system of pillage, and robbery of 
the RepubUc. 

XYIII. 

Accordingly, he caused his Secretary of State to address the 
following high-toned and honorable appeal to the Great Powers, 
which had acknowledged the Independence of Texas. It shows 
clearly the condition of Texas, and will correct many false 
impressions which have gone abroad in reference to the struggles 
of that nation. It is also proper to add, that this was the paper 
which proved so powerful in winning the sympathy and respect 
of Sir Robert Peel, and M. Guizot, who ever after showed the 
deepest interest in the fortunes of Texas. 



XIX. 

Department of State, Texas, 

Washington, October 15th, 1842. 

I am instructed by his Excellency, the President, to submit for your 
consideration and action, a subject of general concern to civilized 
nations, but of peculiar interest to Texas, viz. : the character of the war 
at present waged by Mexico against this country. The President is led 
to believe, from the nature of the facts involved, that this step will be 
deemed not only admissible, but entirely proper. The civilized and 
Christian world is interested in the unimpaired preservation of those 
principles and rules of international intercourse, both in peace and war, 
which have received the impress of wisdom and humanity, and been 
strengthened, through a long course of time, by the practice and approval 
of the most powerful and enlightened of modern States. To these rules, 
in their application to the pending difficulties between this Republic and 
Mexico, your attention is respectfully invited. 

Whenever a people, separate and sovereign in their political character, 



MEXICAN INCURSIONS. 221 

are admitted into the great community of nations, they incur responsi- 
bilities and contract obligations which are reciprocal in their character, 
and naturally binding upon all the members of the community, the extent 
and force of which depend upon that code of ethics which prescribes tho 
reciprocal duties and obligations of each sovereign ^ember. Hence 
arises the right to control the mode of warfare pursued by one nation 
towards another, and the corresponding duty of providing against the per- 
petration of acts at variance with the laws of humanity, and the settled 
usages of civilized nations. 

In view of the character of hostilities, at present waged by Mexico 
against Texas, and of those principles which have been, in the opinion of 
this government, so frequently and so flagrantly violated by our enemy, 
the hope is confidently indulged by the President, that the direct inter- 
ference of nations mutually friendly, will be extended to arrest a species 
of warfare, unbecoming the age in which we live, and disgraceful to any 
people professing to be civilized. 

The course of conduct uniformly observed by the government and 
people of Texas towards our enemy, stands in palpable contrast with their 
manifold enormities and v.anton aggression, and will, it is confidently 
expected, furnish abundant ground for the exercise of the right of inter- 
ference now invoked. 

It has now been nearly seven years since the Declaration and' the 
establishment of the Independence of this Republic. During the whole 
of this time, Mexico, although uniformly asserting the ability and deter- 
mination to re-subjugate the country, has never made a formidable effort 
to do so. Her principal war has consisted of silly taunts and idle threats, 
of braggadocio bulletins and gasconading proclamations. All her boasted 
threats of invasion have resulted in nothing more than fitting out and 
sending into the most exposed portions of our territory, petty marauding 
parties, £ot the purpose of pillaging and harassing the weak and isolated 
settlements on our western border. 

Since March last, no less than three incursions of that character have 

been made, none of which have continued longer than eight days. The 

\Jirst party was composed of artillery, infantry, rancheros, and Indian 

I warriors, in all about 700. Their attack was made upon the defenceless 
town of San Antonio. The second, consisting of about 800, attacked a 
party of about 200 emigrants at Lipantillan. They were repulsed with 
loss, and retreated from the country. The last, under Gen. Woll, of 
about 1300, attacked and took San Antonio the second time, by surprise, 



228 NOBLE ATTITUDE OF TEXAS. 

during the session of the District Court. His force was composed of regu- 
lars, rancheros aud Indians. The Indians employed by the Mexicans are 
fragments of bands originally from the United States, but now located 
within the limits of Texas. This government has always refused to 
employ the services of Indians, when tendered against Mexico, and has 
sought every possible means to mitigate, rather than increase, the calami- 
ties of war. Persisting in this effort, the President has had recourse to the 
present measure, vvith a hope to subserve the cause of humanity. Should 
this effort fail, the government must resort to retaliatory measures, grow- 
ing out of our peculiar situation, which are to be deprecated by every 
Christian and generous feeling. The rulers of nations are responsible for 
their preservation, and as a last resort, must adopt a just retaliation. 
What is most to be deplored in a war of this character, is, that the unof- 
fending and defenceless become victims of the most 'relentless cruelty. 
War, in its most generous and noble aspect, is accompanied by great 
calamities. Nations are not benefited by it, and it must be productive of 
great individual sufferings. But when individuals and nations are exas- 
perated by repeated wrongs, even cruelty itself may be rendered tolerable, 
if it be used as retaliation for injuries long endured. The massacres and 
cruelties which have been inflicted upon Texas, since the commencement 
of her Revolution, have been responded to by a generous forbearance, but 
that cannot be expected longer to exist. 

The object of Mexico, in her course, cannot be misunderstood. By 
incursions of the character complained of, the spirits of our husbandmen 
and farmers are depressed — the cry of invasion is kept up, and the excite- 
ment incidental to war prevents emigration, and embarrasses our 
resources, by deterring men of enterprise and capital from making impor- 
tations of goods into our country. This, for a time, may avail her some- 
thing ; but the aggregate of human suffering will be a poor recompense for 
the advantages she may gain. The origin, genius, and character of the 
people of Texas, are guarantees for her ultimate success. Nations that 
contribute to her advancement, will command her gratitude. Never, since 
1836, has Mexico attempted anything like a general invasion of the 
country, or conducted the war upon any plan calculated to test the 
superiority of the two nations on the field of battle, and bring the war to 
a close by the arbitration of arms. Her hostile demonstrations, thus far, 
have consisted, exclusively, in the clandestine approach of small bands of 
rancheros from the the valley of the Rio Grande, for plunder and theft, 
but sometimes associated with fragments of the Mexican army, composed 



BARBARITY OF MEXICO. 229 

for the most part of convict soldiery, fit for nothing either honorable in 
enterprise or magnanimous in conduct. The people of Texas, being, for 
most part, agriculturalists, engaged in the tillage of the soil, the conse- 
quences of this predatory system of warfare have been to them extremely 
vexatious and harassing, without in any degree hastening the adjustment 
of the difficulties existing between the parties. Entirely different is the 
general character of the Mexican population. They are literally a nation 
of herdsmen, subsisting, in a great measure, on the proceeds of their flocks 
and herds. They can move about from place to place, and make their 
homes wherever inclination or convenience may prompt, without detri- 
ment. 

Hitherto the conduct and disposition of the Government and people of 
Mexico have been diametrically opposed to those manifested by the people 
of Texas. While 'the one has been depredating upon the property and 
dwellings of our exposed and defenceless frontier, murdering the inhabi- 
tants in cold blood, or forcing them away into loathsome, and too often 
fatal, captivity ; inciting the murderous tribes of hostile Indians, who 
reside along our northern border, to plunder our exposed settlements, 
stimulating to the most cruel and barbarous massacres, and inhuman 
butcheries, even of our defenceless women and children, and to commit 
every excess of savage warfare — the other, animated by the hope of a 
further resort to arms and their attendant calamities, for injuries received, 
returned forbearance. 

The President has sought to abstain from the effusion of blood, and in 
that aim has uniformly restrained the impetuosity, and calmed the excite- 
ment of his countrymen, so often aroused by a course of conduct which 
violates every right, both private and national, and a cruelty and depravity 
which Avould disgrace the darkest ages of feudal barbarism. The popular 
impulse might have been turned upon the enemy, on their own soil. The 
result might have proved that a free people, burning with vengeance 
long restrained, could levy a heavy retaliation. 

Such being the character of hostile operations against Texas, on the 

. part of our enemy, which being plainly in violation of every principle of 

civilized or honorable warfare, and, at the same time, so little calculated 

to achieve the professed object of the war — the re-conquest of Texas, the 

President confidently hopes the Government of will feel not only 

justified, but even called upon, to interpose its high authority and arrest 
their course of proceedings, and require of Mexico either the recognition 
of the Independence of Texas, or to make war upon her according to 



230 CLOSE OF THE APPEAL. 

the rights established and universally recognized by civilized nations. If 
Mexico believes herself able to re-subjugate this country, her right to 
make the effort to do so is not denied, for, on the contrary, if she choose 
to invade our temtory with that purpose, the President, in the name of 
the people of all Texas, will bid her welcome. It is not against a war 
with Mexico that Texas would protest. This she deprecates not. She is 
willing at any time to stake her existence as a nation upon the issue of a 
\rar conducted on Christian principles. It is alone against the unholy, 
inhuman, and fruitless character it has assumed, and still maintains, which 
violates every rule of honorable warfare, every precept of religion, and 
sets at defiance even the common sentiments of humanity, against which 
she protests, and invokes the interposition of those powerful nations 
which have recognized her independence. 

The Government of this Republic has already given an earnest of its 
disposition to consult the wishes of other nations, when those wishes do 
not conflict with the general interests and convenience of the country. 
Fully appreciating the friendly sentiments of those Powers, which have 
acknowledged the Independence of Texas, and relying much upon their 
ability and influence in securing an early and permanent adjustment of 
our difficulties with Mexico, the President, in compliance with the desire 
of those Nations, expressed through their Representatives to this Govern- 
ment, revoked the late proclamation of blockade against Mexico, and 
thus removed every cause of embarrassment to those nations in their inter- 
course with our enemy. Having thus yielded the opportunity of retali- 
ating upon our enemy the many injuries we have received at her hands, 
the President feels less reluctance in making this representation, and 
invoking the interposition of those nations to put an end to a mode of 
warfare at once disgraceful to the age, so evil in its consequences to civil 
society, so revolting to every precept of the Christian religion, and shock- 
ing to every sentiment of humanity. 

G. W. TERRELL, 
Attorney- General, and Acting Secretary of State. 



RECEPTION OF THE APPEAL. 231 



SECTION THIRTEENTH. 

ANNEXATION FRENCH, BRITISH, AND AMERICAN CABINETS. 

I. 

This luminous aud able paper, unfolded clearly the merits of 
the Texan struggle, and it received the profound attention of 
the Cabinets of Washington, London, and Paris. The leading 
Journals of England and France, borrowing their prejudices and 
their intelligence about Texan affairs, from powerful and widely- 
circulated American Papers, had hitherto regarded the people 
of Texas as a band of outlaws. Scarcely a word of encourage- 
ment or sympathy had been uttered by their ministers to the 
agents of Texas in Europe, and beyond a tardy recognition of 
her independence, they hardly ventured. The American Press 
groaned under the burden of calumnies against the Texan people 
and their bold leader. 



II. 

Consequently, this appeal was received, and read with surprise 
and mortification. They saw that the same high veneration for 
justice — the same lofty regard for national honor, aud the same 
(if not a nobler) recognition of the claims of humanity and 
Christian principle which had characterized the progress and 
the intercourse of those great kingdoms — inspired the councils 
of the man who had given freedom to his outraged country. 



232 TEXAS IN THE MARKET. 

III. 

"We have been told, and we do not doubt it, that both of 
those great ministers, who guided the destinies of England and 
France, declared, on reading this appeal, that it would have 
done honor to the bravest nation, and most enlightened states- 
man. However this may have been, we do know, from the 
archives of Texas, that immediately afterward, a rivalry began 
between the French and English Cabinets, for the cultivation of 
friendly relations with Texas. Instructions were sent to the 
ministers of those nations accredited to the Texan Government, 
to allow no opportunity of winning the regard and friendship of 
the Republic to pass unimproved. We also know, too, that no 
effort which vigilant ministers could put forth, and no motives 
which keen-sighted diplomatists could press, were left untried, 
to gain for their Sovereigns, control over the commerce and the 
political fortunes of Texas. They saw that, as an independent 
power, no barriers could be interposed to her ultimate advance- 
ment ; and it became a matter of infinite moment to France 
and England, to prevent the final union of Texas with the 
United States. Hence, those powers watched with so much 
vigilance and alarm, the tendency of affairs towards annexation. 
Hence they brought into requisition all their diplomatic, 
commercial, and financial machinery, to prevent what they 
clearly foresaw would prove so detrimental to their ancient 
supremacy in the New World. We have had facilities for 
knowing something of these movements, and we venture to say, 
that had not Houston held the control of these negotiations, 
and been a man whose policy neither England nor France could 
constrain or coerce by any motives of personal aggra.ndizement — 
Texas never would have been a part of our confederacy, and those 
great powers would have gained a foothold beyond the Sabine, 
which would not unlikely have transferred to their hands that vast 
empire which we are now wielding on the shores of the Pacific. 



JOHN Tyler's noble conduct. 233 

lY. 

The very moment the French and British Cabinets saw the 
tendency of events, they increased their vigilance just in propor- 
tion as Texas was spurned from our embraces. But while 
timidity and apprehensions filled the minds of the friends of 
Texas in this country, and Congress, blinded by falsehood and 
prejudice, plied by threats and awed by clamor, still held itself 
aloof from all legislation on the subject, Mr. Tyler and his 
cabinet were no idle spectators of the advancing drama. That 
President — whatever may have been the wisdom of the rest of his 
course — pursued, in the affair of Texas, a most enlightened, saga- 
cious, and American policy. He saw the vast importance of 
consummating annexation at the earliest possible moment; and 
all that vigilance, activity, and a complete understanding of 
the merits of the question, could accomplish, was done. His 
efforts were at last successful. And although his reputation as 
a statesman may have suffered, and he may have paid the 
penalty of having in some things proved untrue to both parties 
as well as to himself, yet all this has been in a great measure 
forgotten, and the time will come when the vast consequences of 
that great act, whose consummation is so much due to him, will 
become so apparent to all our people, that his name will be 
cherished by every American. Throughout his administration, 
he was true to his policy on this question. TJnawed by popular 
clamor, and unseduced by the minions who pressed around his 
feet (and who brought the transient eclipse over his fame), he 
steadily and firmly pursued his noble purpose. 



Y. 

In the meantime, France and England did interfere, and 
brought about an armistice between Mexico and Texas. The 



234 Houston's policy of annexation. 

friendly offices of our Cabinet were also proffered, but they had 
little influence with Mexico. The negotiations in London were 
conducted with consummate ability by Mr. Ashbel Smith. 

In a dispatch from the Department of State of Texas, to Mr. 
Yan Zandt, Charge d' Affaires of the Republic at Washington, 
dated July 6th, 1843, that functionary was thus instructed : 
" The United States having taken no definite action in this matter, 
and there now being an increased prospect of an adjustment of 
our difficulties with Mexico, the President deems it advisable to 
take no further action at present in reference to annexation, 
but has decided to await the issue of events now in progress, and 
to postpone that subject for future consideration, and for such 
action as circumstances may hereafter render most expedient for 
the interests of this country." 

VI. 

This extract, with others we shall presently give, will unfold 
what has been a matter of some dispute, viz. : — the policy of 
Houston on this important subject. Whatever his own private 
feelings may have been, it was exceedingly doubtful whether our 
Government would ever consent to annexation on what he con- 
sidered fair and equal terms ; and he was resolved to maintain 
with France and England the most friendly relations ; that in 
the event of Texas being spurned from the embrace • of the 
United States, she might fall back upon a Treaty with a power- 
ful ally, under whose patronage she might claim protection from 
her foe, and under whose policy (made liberal by interest) she 
might advance rapidly to power. 

YII. 

The French and English ministers resident in Texas, had 
already manifested some little jealousy on the subject of Hous- 



EFFECTIVE DIPLOMACY. 235 

ton's negotiations with the Washington Cabinet, and seeing 
little probability of consummating a treaty of annexation, he 
instructed Mr. Van Zandt to defer all further action for the 
time being. 

Accordingly, instructions were forwarded to Mr. Yan Zandt 
on the 13th of December (1843). The following extracts will 
clearly unfold the reasons for Houston's policy. 

'•' The interposition of foreign friendly governments, by which an 
Armistice has been established between Texas and Mexico, and the 
prospect of a permanent peace with that power given, has been extended 
by the particular governments mostly influential in obtaining these most 
desirable results chiefly with a view that, in the event of Mexico's agree- 
ing to acknowledge the independence of Texas, she should continue to 
exist as a separate and independent nation. The great object and desire 
of Texas is the establishment of a permanent and satisfactory peace with 
her enemy, and for this purpose the good offices of these powers have been 
asked and obtained, and the object sought for, through their intervention, 
appears now on the eve of being realized. 

" This intervention and these good offices have been gratuitously and 
unconditionally given, and although Texas is entirely free to pursue any 
course she may please in future, the President thinks that, in the present 
state of our foreign relations, it would not be politic to abandon the 
expectations which now exist of a speedy settlement of our difficulties 
with Mexico through the good offices of other powers, for the very 
uncertain prospect of annexation to the United States, however desirable 
that event, if it could be consummated, might be. Were Texas to agree 
to a treaty of annexation, the good offices of these powers would, it is 
believed, be immediately withdrawn, and were the treaty then to fail of 
ratification by the Senate of the United States, Texas would be placed in 
a much worse situation than she is at present, nor could she again ask or 
hope for any interposition in her behalf, either by England or France ; 
and with our consequent supposed dependence upon the United States, 
might again return the apathy and indiflTerence towards us which has 
always, until now, characterized that government. Texas would then be 
left in the same situation she was two years since, without a friend, and 
her difficulties with Mexico unsettled. 

"This government is duly sensible of the very friendly feelings 



236 TEXAS WITHDRAWS ANNEXATION. 

evinced by the President of the United States, in the offer to conclude a 
treaty for the annexation of this country, but from all the information 
which he has been able to obtain in relation to the views and feelings of 
the people of the United States, he is induced to believe that its approval 
by the other branches of that government would be, if not refused, at 
least, of very uncertain attainment at this particular time — therefore, 
and until such an expression of their opinion can be obtained as would 
render this measure certain of success, the President deems it most proper 
and most advantageous to the interests of this country, to decline the 
proposition for concluding a treaty. In making a communication of this 
determination to the government of the United States, it will be proper 
to inform that government that whenever the Congress or Senate of the 
United States shall throw wide open the door to annexation, by a reso- 
lution authorizing the President of that country to propose a treaty for 
the purpose, the proposition will be immediately submitted to the repre- 
sentatives of the people of this country, and promptly responded to on 
the part of its government. 

" The present determination of the President on this subject, does not 
proceed from any change in his views of the general policy of the 
measure, but from a change iii the relations of this country with other 



YIII. 

These instructions to suspend negotiations on the subject of 
annexation, with a knowledge that England was pressing her 
powerful and friendly offices upon the Republic, alarmed the 
Cabinet at Washington. The facts which were soon after 
made public, excited the apprehensions also, not only of all the 
friends of annexation, but of all those Americans, who had the 
foresight to anticipate the prejudicial consequences that would 
come upon this country, by allowing England to gain a foot- 
hold on our Southern frontier. She had sometimes proved a 
bad neighbor, as our difficulties growing out of the North- 
Eastern and Oregon bonndcries had abundantly proved — and 
the deepest anxiety was everywhere manifested for the prompt 
action of Congress. In the meantime, Mr. Tyler, fearing the 



SECRET MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 23T 

result, had instructed Ms Secretary of State to lose no oppor- 
tunity of assuring the Texan government of his earnest desire to 
consummate annexation. 



IX. 

The President of Texas was placed in a position of extreme 
delicacy, and any imprudent act or movement would have proved 
exceedingly hazardous to the interests of his country. He had 
early manifested his desire for annexation, and done all he could 
to effect it during his first executive term. Under Mr. Lamar's 
administration, the question had slept. Houston had pursued a 
discreet course in regard to it after his re-election, and although 
he had now been for some time earnestly occupied in securing 
annexation, he had, like a wise man, kept his own- counsels. 



X. 

On the 20th of January, 1844, however, he sent a secret mes- 
sage to Congress, in which he uses the following language ; 

" Connected with our present condition, our foreign relations are 
becoming daily more and more interesting ; and it seems to me that the 
representatives of the people should anticipate the events which may in 
all probability occur. * * * ♦ * * 

* * * '* The Executive, therefore, relies upon the delibe- 

rative wisdom and decision of the representatives of the people, to give 
him all the aid in their power to conduct the affairs of Texas to such an 
issue, as will be promotive of its interests as a community, and at the same 
time gratifying to the people. Heretofore, he has carefully abstained, 
during his present administration, from the expression of any opinion in 
reference to the subject of annexation to the United States. And, in sub- 
mitting this communication, he does not think it becoming in him now to 
express any preference. 

*' It will be perceived by the honorable Congress, that if any effort 



23t8 POLICY OF ANNEXATION. 

were made on the part of this Government to effect the object of annex- 
ation, which is so desirable, and if it should fail of meeting responsive and 
corresponding action on the part of the United States, it might have a 
seriously prejudicial influence upon the course which England and France 
might otherwise be disposed to take in our favor. And a failure on our 
part, after a decided expression, could not but be mortifying to us, and to 
a great extent diminish our claims to the confidence of other nations. It 
would create distrust on their part towards us ; because the opponents of 
our interests would allege there was no stability in our purposes, and 
therefore it would be unsafe in other, nations to cultivate very intimate 
relations with us, or even to maintain those which now exist. They might 
apprehend that after the lapse of a few more years, Texas, once having 
acquired increased importance from their friendly aid and good offices, 
would be induced again, by the agitation of the same question in the 
United States, to apply for admission into that Union, and that by possi- 
bility it might be effected. Hence the utmost caution and secresy on our 
part, as to the true motives of our policy, should be carefully observed." 



XI. 

He recommends that in the event of the failure of Texas, 
she should enter into " a treaty of alliance, defensive at least, if 
not offensive," with the United States. 

" If nothing else," he says, " were effected in a treaty for defence, it 
would secure to Texas a position that would for ever bid defiance to our 
Mexican enemy. It would be as important to us, in fact, as the recog- 
nition of our independence by Mexico." 

He also proposes the appointment of ''an additional agent to 
the Government of the United States, to co-operate with our 
agent there." He thus concludes : 

" If the honorable Congress should think well of these suggestions, they 
will be aware of the propriety of immediate action on the subject. The 
Congress of the United States have now been in session some time, and 
ilure can be but little doubt that if they have not already done so, they 



SHOULD TEXAS BE ANNEXED. 239 

will soon indicate their disposition, and course of policy towards this 
country. 

" Believing as the Executive did, at the commencement of the present 
Session, that the subject of annexation was in the best position in which 
Texas could place it, he did not allude to it in his general Message- 
apprehending that any public action taken either by the Executive or the 
Congress would only have a tendency to embarrass the subject. Action 
must now be taken by the United States ; and we must now watch and 
meet their disposition towards us. 

" If we evince too much anxiety, it will be regarded as importunity, 
and the voice of supplication seldom commands great respect." 



XII. 

The spirit of this message inspired all Houston's acts on this 
great question, and the effect was most salutary. For it is more 
than probable that our Congress would have turned a deaf ear 
to " the voice of supplication,*' had they not discovered that the 
people of Texas, grown weary of delays and indignant at 
repeated repulses, would supplicate no longer. The position of 
parties was suddenly changed — completely reversed. It became 
clearer than noon-day, that unless Texas was allowed to come 
into our Union, under auspices the most favorable to her, she 
would not enter — and in any event, it seemed probable that she 
was after all to be the sufferer. Her anxiety, therefore, for 
annexation, was every hour growing less, while ours was 
increasing. 

XIII. 

Both parties were aware of the movements of England — and 
while Texas saw in the extension of that proud shield over her 
young Republic, the boon of mighty protection, we watched 
with jealous and anxious interest, the progress of that same impe- 
rial emblem. When, therefore, that Republic whose people, 



240 TEXAS LOST TO AMERICA. 

'' bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh," had been pleading on 
their knees the same admission which had hitherto been cordially- 
tendered by Congress to every other American colony on the 
continent, was repulsed " like some stranger," she sprung to her 
feet, and the next moment we saw her youthful figure relieved 
against the giant form of Old England, whose purple mantle 
was thrown kindly over her shoulder, and whose flag of St. 
George was waving over her head. It was a strange, but 
beautiful spectacle. " Is that," said all, " the suppliant who so 
lately was kneeling on the steps of our Capitol ?" 

XIY. 

Texas was now lost to America. The only question was, 
" Can she be again won ?" and the American Congress was no 
longer the sole party to answer the inquiry. 

The Cabinet at Washington manifested an anxiety to renew 
negotiations. In his letter to Mr. Van Zandt (29th January, 
1844), Houston instructs his Minister to meet the United States 
half way, and to inform him of any disposition on their part to 
come to the terms they had rejected. " They must be con- 
\inced," says he, " that England has rendered most important 
service to Texas by her mediatorial influence with Mexico." 
He then proceeds: 

" If the United States really intend to deprive England of connections 
on this continent, a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, formed 
with this country against Mexico, would enable that government to retain 
an influence in the affairs of Texas which could be done by no other cir- 
cumstance. In November, 18i2, when Texas protested to the three Great 
Powers against the course pursued by Mexico in her war with this coun- 
try, it was understood the three Powers were to act in harmony, so far as 
any mediation was to be interposed. From some circumstances, England 
appears to have been most active and efiScient in her efforts. The United 
States, from their contiguity in situation, had gi-eater facilities than 



A T T i; M P T S A T A .\ X E X A T I O N . 241 

England at their command, and had they been as forward in their efforts 
at mediation as England, it would have been more grateful to the citizens 
of Texas. A moment's reflection will present many reasons why it 
should have been so. "When an individual is overwhelmed by misfortune, 
and that misfortune is lightened or relieved, the beneficiary always feels 
grateful for the benefits conferred ; and in the event of a recurrence, 
would naturally look to the same source for a renewal of favor. Thus 
must it be with nations, and it requires no argument to convince the 
United States, that in submitting the first proposition for a treaty of 
alliance with them, the authorities of Texas are far from pretermitting any 
just claims which they may have to the confidence of Texas as a nation, 
but the reverse. 

'•It is true that our eyes were directed to the United States, not only 
as a people but as a government, to which Texas was most willing to feel 
herself obligated. If we did not realize all our expectations, we are far 
from concluding that anything left unaccomplished by her arose from 
hostility to Texas on her part ; and for that, among other reasons, we 
propose an alliance as an earnest of the confidence we are still willing to 
place upon them and their efforts." 



XY. 

Negotiations were now^ once more commenced in earnest, and 
the two Ministers of Texas (Mr. Yan Zandt, and Gen. Hender- 
son, afterwards Governor of Texas), represented their country 
with great ability, and won for themselves universal respect. 

In the dispatch of Houston to Mr. Yan Zandt (Feb. 15, 
1844), informing him of the investment of Gen. Henderson (just 
appointed) and himself, "with proper powers to conclude the 
subject of annexation as far as it can be consummated by the 
Government of the United States and our Ministers," the Presi- 
dent thus speaks of the vast consequences of annexation, if it 
should be effected. 

•* It would be useless for me to attempt to portray to you the magni- 
tude of the consequences which are to grow out of these transactions. 

11 



242 SOLICITUDE FOR TEXAS. 

Millions will realize the benefits; but it is not within the compass of 
mortal expression to estimate the advantages to mankind. The measui-es 
of this Government have not been devised without due consideration of 
the subject, so far as Texas may be affected by it ; and no matter how 
great the ultimate advantages to the two countries may have been con- 
sidered, in the event of annexation, it was the manifest duty of this 
Government to use such precaution as would secure it against any acci- 
dental catastrophe. It is now in possession of such assurances from the 
United States as will hazard the die.'' 



XVI. 

In another dispatch, dated the 29th of April, 1844, we find 
the following language : — 

" I have felt, and yet feel, great solicitude for our fate. The crisis to 
Texas is everything. To the United States it is worth its union. My 
toil has constantly been for the freedom and happiness of mankind, and if 
we are annexed, I hope we shall have accomplished much ; but if from 
any cause we should be rejected, we must redouble our energies, and the 
accompanying duplicate will express to you decisively what my purposes 
are. Texas can become sovereign and independent, established upon her 
own incalculable advantages of situation, and sustained by European influ- 
ences, without the slightest compromittal of her nationality. If the 
present measure of annexation should fail entirely, and we are to be 
thrown back upon our own resources, fix your eye steadily on the sal- 
vation of Texas, and pursue the course which I have indicated. I again 
declare to you, that every day which passes, only convinces me more 
clearly, that it is the last effort at annexation that Texas will ever make ; 
nor do I believe that any solicitation or guarantee from the United 
States would, at any future day, induce her to consent to the measure." 

XYII. 

But the Mission of General Henderson seemed likely to secure 
no good results, and in a dispatch of May 1*1 th, 1844, he was 
advised to return. The President says : — 



TEXAS INDEPENDENT, 243 

"Whatever the desires of this Government, or the people, are, or 
might have been, in relation to Annexation, I am satisfied they are not 
ambitious, at this time, nor will ever be again, to be seen in the attitude 
of a bone of contention, to be worried or gnawed by conflicting politi- 
cians. The views of the Executive of this country, as well as the views 
of its citizens, were fairly presented in a willingness to become annexed 
to the United States, and though the advantages presented to the United 
States were incalculably greater than those resulting to Texas, she was 
willing to stand the hazard of the adventure. 

'' The statesmen of that country appear to be united in opinion adverse 
to our admission into the Union of the North. We must, therefore, 
regard ourselves as a nation, to remain for ever separate. It would be 
unpleasant for us to enter into a community, as a member, where we should 
be regarded ungraciously by either of the political parties. Texas alone, 
can well be sustained, and no matter what sincere desire we may have 
entertained for a connection with that Government, and the affectionate 
enthusiasm that has existed in this towards it, we will be compelled to 
reconcile ourselves to our present condition, or to assume such an attitude 
towards other countries as will certainly look to our independence. This 
can be accomplished, if the United States will carry out, the pledges 
which they have already given. The compromittal of our national 
honor I cannot contemplate, nor would I entertain any proposition which 
could be averse to our character as an independent nation ; but Texas 
can now command interests ivhich will require no such sacrifice. 
We must act!! * * It would seem, from the complexion of matters at 
Washington, that General Henderson's remaining there longer would be 
unnecessary. As indicated in my last communication, negotiations can 
be very well conducted at this Government, not designing to cast any 
reflections upon the representatives of this Government at Washington, 
in whom the executive has the highest confidence. Moments of leisure 
could be employed here, and even hours and days commanded, which is 
not permitted when urgent dispatches arrive. The locality of our seat 
of Government is such, that the Executive has had no substitute himself 
in corresponding for the Secretary of State, and dispenses with the ser- 
vices of that valuable officer, for the sake of dispatch. * * The measure 
of Annexation having been taken up at the instance of the United 
States, ought to secure Texas, and fortify her against all inconveniences 
arising from having opened negotiations on that subject. The treaty 
having been signed and submitted to the Senate, is all that can be per- 



244 K U S T U X ' S DIPLOMACY, 

formed oa the part of Texas. Further solicitation, oil her part, would 
present her as an object of commiseration to the civilized world. If the 
embarrassments of our condition have presented us in a humiliating 
posture, it furnishes no excuse to us for voluntary degradation. 

" Therefore it is, that my purpose is fixed in relation to the subject of 
which I have treated. The desires of the people of Texas, with aiy 
LOVE OF REPOSE (thus far I am selfish), had determixed me in favor 
OP Axnexatiox. My judgmext, though rexdered subserviext TO their 

INCLINATIONS AND MY OWN, HAS NEVER FULLY RATIFIED THE COURSE ADOPTED. 

Yet, in all good faith, I have lent and afforded every aid to its 

CONSUMMATION." 

XYIII 

We shall now close our extracts from Houston's Dispatches, 
by giving a portion of a very important private letter to Mr. 
Murphy, the American Minister to the Texan Government. 
We have nowhere seen the same views expressed in regard to 
the future destiny of Texas. The letter shows beyond a 
question, that the writer was persuaded that Texas, even if 
she was compelled to stand alone, had no mean destiny await- 
ing her in the future. The views here given are those of a 
statesman — of one who knew the history of his nation, and the 
character of her people — of a patriot, who never despaired for 
his country, on whose altars he had consecrated himself 
for ever 

* * « The times are big with coming events to Texas and the world. 
I feel that matters now transacting are, if carried out, to perpetuate the 
union of the States, by the Annexation of Texas, for centuries. If this 
great measure fails, the Union will be endangered ; its revenues dimi- 
nished; and a European influence will grow up in Texas, from our 
necessities and interests, that will most effectually prejudice the interests 
of the United States, so far as they are to look for the sale of their fabrics 
in the southern section of this continent, and a forfeiture of our sympa- 
thies. Mexico, in a short time, by the influences which Texas can com- 



THE FUTURE FOR TEXAS. 245 

mand, will yield everything to the superior energy, activity, and the 
employment of well-directed capital, which will flow into us from Europe, 
and render us the beneficiaries of a most important and extensive trade. 
All our ports will soon become great commercial marts ; and places, now 
scarcely noticed upon our maps, will be built up, and grow into splendid 
cities. 

*• These are but few of the advantages which are noticed ; but these, to 
the statesmen of the United States, ought to cause ceaseless efforts to 
secure so rich a prize. 

<' The present moment is the only one that the United States will ever 
enjoy to annex Texas. I am intensely solicitous to see the matter con- 
summated, and my country at rest. 'Tis true that we are not to be great 
gainers, when compared to the United States, in what they derive. Had 
I been at Washington, I would, most certainly, not have made a treaty so 
indefinite as to individual rights which may arise, and be involved in the 
subject of annexation. "We surrender everything, and in reality get 
nothing but protection — and that at the hazard of being invaded or 
annoyed by Mexico before any aid could be rendered by the United 
States. I hope that the precautions taken will be such as to deter Mexico 
from any attempt upon us. 

'< The fact, that the United States is one of the rival powers of the world, 
will render that nation more liable to war than we would be as a minor 
power. There are a thousand reasons which I could urge, why Texas 
would be more secure from trouble if she could have present peace — which 
she can obtain readily if she is not annexed. When we once become 
a part and parcel of the United States we are subject to all their vicis- 
situdes. Their commercial relations are extensive, which subjects them 
to jealousy and the rivalry of other powers, who will seek to overreach 
them, and cramp them by restrictions, or annoy them by interference. 
They will not be willing to submit to these things, and the consequences 
will be war. Nor will this danger arise from any one power of the earth, 



246 POLITICAL PROPHECIES. 

but from various nations. The wealth of European nations depends more 
upon their labor, than the people of this continent. We look to the soil 
— they to their manufacturing capacity, for the means of life as well as 
wealth. These facts are not all ; and, indeed, but a very partial notice of 
important affairs. The political relations of the United States will 
increase, and become more complicated and extensive with their increase 
of power. Not only this, but they, too, will grow arrogant ; and it will 
not be a half century, if the Union should last, before they will feel a 
strong inclination to possess, by force, that which they at present would 
be willing to make a subject of negotiation and treaty. 

" In all contingencies, if we are annexed, we have to bear a part of 
their troubles — no matter of what character. Alone and Independent, 
Texas would be enabled to stand aloof from all matters unconnected with 
her existence as a nation ; while the causes of war to the United States 
would be a source of benefit and prosperity to her. War could grow up 
between no power and the United States, but what Texas would be the 
beneficiary. The value of her staples would be enhanced, and that 
arising from the influence of war upon the United States. Texas, enjoy- 
ing a3 she does a situation on the Gulf, and a neutral attitude, would 
derive the greatest possible benefits. Calamity to other nations, would 
be wealth and power to Texas. The encouragement given us by the 
demand for our staples would increase our individual, as well as our 
national wealth. The fleets of belligerents would be supplied with meats 
from our natural pastures 5 and the sale of our superabundant herds 
would, when added to the sale of our other commodities, give us more 
wealth than any other nation, in comparison to our population. 

" Apart from this, if we should not be annexed, all the European nations 
would introduce with alacrity vast numbers of emigrants, because it 
would enable them to extend their commerce. Those who migrate from 
the different nations to Texas will retain predilections, for many years, 
in favor of the partialities which nativity carries with it in after life. 



MOTIVES FOR ANNEXATION. 247 

That France and England will pour into our country vast numbers of 
industrious citizens, tliere can bo no doubt. Belgium, Holland, and 
other countries, will not be remiss in their duty to ulterior consequences. 
All these countries have an excess of population, and the common policy and 
economy of nations are such, that they will have a care to the location of 
those who leave their native countries. Never, to my apprehension, have all 
nations evinced the s&me disposition to commerce as that which is now 
exercised and entertained. Hence, no time has ever been so propitious 
for the upbuilding of a nation possessed of our advantages, as that which 
Texas at this moment enjoys, in the event that the measure of annexation 
should fail. Its failure can only result from selfishness on the part of the 
Government or Congress of the United States. If faction, or a regard to 
present party advantages, should defeat the measure, you may depend 
upon one thing — and that is, that the glory of the United States has 
already culminated. A rival power will soon be built up, and the 
Pacific, as well as the Atlantic, will be component parts of Texas, in 
thirty years from this date. 

The Oregon region, in geographical affinity, will attach to Texas. By this 
coalition, or union, the barrier of the Rocky Mountains will be dispensed 
with or obviated. England and France, in anticipation of such an event, 
would not be so tenacious on the subject of Oregon, as if the United 
States were to be the sole possessors of it. When such an event would 
take place, or in anticipation of such result, all the powers, which either 
envy or fear the United States, would use all reasonable exertions to 
build us up, as the only rival power which can exist, on this continent, to 
that of the United States. Considering our origin, these speculations 
may seem chimerical, and that such things cannot take place. A 
common origin has its influence so long as a common interest exists, and 
n.0 longer. Sentiment tells, well in love matters or in a speech ; but in 
the afiairs and transactions of nations there is no sentiment or feeling but 
one, and that is essentially selfish. 



248 POLITICAL C A L C U L A T I O N . 

I regard nations as corporations on a large and sometimes magnificent 
scale, but no more than this; consequently, they have no soul, and 
recognize no Mentor but interest. 

Texas, once set apart and rejected by the United States, would feel 
that she was of humble origin ; and if a prospect was once presented to 
her of becoming a rival to the United States, it would only stimulate her 
to feelings of emulation ; and it would be her least consideration, that, by 
her growth to power, she would overcome the humility of her early 
condition. So the very causes which now operate with Texas, and incline 
her to annexation, may, at some future period, give origin to the most 
active and powerful animosity between the two countries. This, too, we 
must look at, for it will be the case. Whenever difficulties arise between 
the United States and Texas, if they are to remain two distinct nations, 
the powers of Europe will not look upon our affairs with indifference ; 
and no matter what their professions may be of neutrality, they can 
always find means of evasion. The union of Oregon and Texas will be 
much more natural and convenient than for either, separately, to belong 
to the United States. This, too, would place Mexico at the mercy of 
Buch a power as Oregon and Texas would form. Such an event may 
appear fanciful to many, but I assure you there are no Rocky Mountains 
interposing to such a project. But one thing can prevent its accomplish 
ment, and that is annexation. 

If you, or any Statesman, will only regard th« map of North America, 
you will perceive that, from the 4:6th degree of latitude North, there 
is the commencement of a natural boundary. This will embrace the 
Oregon, and from thence south on the Pacific coast, to the 29th or 
30th degree of south latitude, Vv'ill be a natural and convenient extent 
of sea-board. 

I am free to admit, that most of the Produces of Chihuahua, Sonora, 
and the Upper and Lower Californiaa, as well as Santa Fe, which we 
now claim, will have to be brought into the connection of Texas and 



A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE. 249 

Oregon. This, you will see by reference to the map, is no bugbear 
to those who will reflect upon the achievements of the Anglo-Saxon 
people. What have they ever attempted, and recoiled from, in sub- 
mission to defeat? Nothing, I would answer. Population would be 
all that would be needful, for, with it, resources would be afforded for 
the accomplishment of any enterprise. As to the proposition, that the 
Provinces of Mexico would have to be overrun, there is nothing in this ; 
for you may rely upon the fact, that the Mexicans only require kind 
and humane masters to make them a happy people, and secure them 
against the savage hordes who harass them constantly, and bear their 
women and children into bondage. Secure them from these calamities, 
and they would bless any power that would grant them such a boon. 

The Rocky Mountains interposing between Missouri and Oregon will 
very naturally separate them from the United States, when they see the 
advantages arising from a connection with another nation of the same 
language and habits with themselves. The line of Texas running with 
the Arkansas, and extending to the great desert, would mark a natural 
boundary between Texas, or a new and vast Republic to the Southwest. 
If this ever take place, you may rely upon one thing, which is this, that a 
nation, embracing the advantages of the extent of seventeen degrees 
on the Pacific, and so extensive a front on the Atlantic as Texas does, 
will not be less than a rival power to any of the nations now in 
existence. 

You need not estimate the population, which is said, or reputed, to 
occupy the vast Territory embraced between the 29th and 46th degrees 
of latitude on the Pacific. They will, like the Indian race, yield to the 
advance of the North American population. The amalgamation, under 
the guidance of statesmen, cannot fail to produce the result, in creating 
a united Government, formed of, and embracing the limits suggested. 

It may be urged, that these matters are remote. Be it so. States- 
men are intended by their forecast to regulate and arrange matters in 



250 FAR-SIGHTED STATESMANSHIP. 

such sort as will give direction to events by which the future is to 
be benefited or prejudiced. 

" You may freely rely, my friend, that future ages will profit by 
these facts, while we will only contemplate them in perspective. 
They must come. It is impossible to look upon the map of North 
America, and not perceive the rationale of the project. Men may laugh 
at these suggestions ; but when we are withdrawn from all the petty 
influences which now exist, these matters will assume the most grave and 
solemn national import. 

'• I do not care to be in any way identified with them. They are the 
results of destiny, over which I have no control. 

"If the Treaty is not ratified, I will require all future negotiations to 
be transferred to Texas."' * « * 

It would be difficult in all the annals of history to discover a 
more striking illustration of far-sighted statesmanship. 



WHY HE FAVORED AXNEXATION. 251 



SECTION FOURTEENTH. 

RETIREMENT HOUSTON'S CHARACTER. 

I. 

Such was the destiny which, to the keen vision of Houston, 
awaited Texas if she remained a Sovereign Nation. 

The extracts we have given from his dispatches put the 
question of his policy and his preferences, in regard to annexa- 
tion, at rest for ever. He was, up to the last moment, in favor 
of that gretit measure. 

He favored it, because it would secure immediate peace to his 
fellow citizens, and protection from a perfidious and barbarous 
foe. 

• He favored it, because it would settle the affairs and establish 
the tranquillity of the Republic, and enable him to withdraw 
from the turbulent scenes of political life, and enjoy the repose 
of retirement, after his long and ceaseless labors. 

He favored it, because it would bind the people of Texas 
firmly to the great Federal Family of Washington, and link 
their fortunes to the American Republic. 

He favored it, because, like all the true and all the patriotic 
of his country, he felt an earnest longing to return to the family 
hearth-stone, where the great Patriarchs of the Revolution had 
gathered, and unite with twenty millions of his brethern in burn- 
ing inceuse to the Genius of Liberty around its holy altars. 

He favored it, because he saw that it would narrow the field 



252 RETIREMENT TO TRTVATP: LIFE. 

of many petty ambitious men, whose struggles for power might 
disturb the tranquillity of Texas, and impede her advancement. 

He favored it, because he felt he had himself achieved his 
work on the field and in the Cabinet, and although he was 
beloved by the people, and could alvv^ays have been, in one form 
or another, their Leader, yet he had no more ambition to gratify. 
He beheved, too, that his beloved country would find under our 
broad shield, the same repose from her alarms and troubles, that 
he himself looked forward to in the quiet of his Prairie Home. 
And yet his dispatches show that he was prepared for any 
result. He had his eye fixed on the future, and if American 
Statesmen were resolved Texas never should mingle her fortunes 
with us, he also was determined to watch over her career and 
guide her to a nobler destiny. 



11. 

Up to the very moment the decision was made by the Ameri- 
can Senate, he held the question of annexation in the hollow 
of his hand. And when, at the eleventh hour, we grudgingly 
opened the doors to let the light of the Lone Star shine into our 
Temple, there is not a shadow of doubt, that if Houston had 
resented the tardy offer, it would have been proudly and scorn- 
fully hurled back by the people of Texas. He was not then 
President, actually — but in or out of office, he was still their 
Leader, the Counsellor of his country. His last term expired 
just before annexation was passed, and the Constitution would 
not allow him to be President agaiu. But his own confidential 
friend, his Secretary of State, his adviser and his supporter, was 
chosen to succeed hira, and it was everywhere understood that 
Houston's policy was still followed — his feeling still consulted — 
and his voice still heard. 



LAST LETTER OF INSTRUCTIONS. 253 

III. 

Great apprehensions were felt by the friends of Texas in this 
country, about the course Houston would finally pursue — for it 
was believed that he would carry the people of that Republic 
with him in his decision. The time at last came — Houston 
gave his support to Annexation, and by an overwhelming 
majority Texas became one of the Sovereign States of the 
American Republic 

IV. 

The following important Letter of Instructions procured the 
annexation of Texas. 

" City of Houston, April lUh, 1844. 

" Gentlemen, — Your notes have both reached me, one of the 30th ult., 
and one of the 1st inst. To-day I forward to the State Department all 
ray dispatches. 

" Col. Ashbel Smith, our Charge d'Afifaires, writes from Paris, under date 
29th February, this important fact. " The French and British Govern- 
ments have united in a Protest to the United States against the annexation 
of Texas to the Union." This is an important fact. Never has the situ- 
ation of Texas been so interesting since the 21st of April, 1836, as at this 
moment. You may rely upon it, if the Government of the United States 
does not act immediately, and consummate the work of annexation, Texas 
is for ever lost to them. 

" In my opinion, England and France will say to Texas, " if you will 
agree to remain separate for ever from the United States, we will forth- 
with prevent all further molestation to you from Mexico, and guarantee 
you independence agreeably to your institutions now established and 
avowed.*' You cannot fail to discover what would be the proper course 
of Texas in such an event. Texas has done all that she could do to obtain 
annexation, and you may rely upon this fact, in the event of a failure, that 
Texas will do all that she should do. 

" If a Treaty is made, it will of course have been done after the pledges 
given by the United States Charg^ d'Affaires have been recognized by his 



254 NEGOTIATIONS. 

Government, and then we are secure. If a Treaty has been made, and 
those pledges exacted by you, and it should be rejected, it will be proper 
to ascertain if annexation can take place by Congressional action, and thi3 
done promptly. Should all fail, you will forthwith call upon Mr. Pack- 
enham, and the French Minister, as well as the Government of the United 
States, and after suitable conversations and explanations, present to them 
the subject of a Triple guarantee for our Independence, and to prevent all 
further molestation, or at least an unlimited truce with Mexico. And then, 
if all prospect of annexation fails with the Government of the United 
States, and it should refuse to unite upon the basis here laid down, you 
will then, so far as practicable, arrange the matter with France and Eng- 
land ; and General Henderson, with Mr. Miller, Secretary of the Secret 
Legation, will make a visit of leave to the Heads of the proper Depart- 
ments, and return to Texas. Texas ought not, cannot, and will not remain 
in its present situation. 

" The subject of annexation has already embarrassed our relations with 
Mexico. The Truce will end on the first of May, as I presume, for I did 
not accede to the terms of the armistice, since Texas was recognized as a 
" Department of Mexico,"' in the terms of agreement between the com- 
missioners. Mexico was well disposed to settle matters very amicably, 
when our Commissioners arrived at Sabinus, but one of the Mexican Com- 
missioners was too unwell to proceed to business. When he recovered, the 
subject of annexation was mooted in the United States, and the Texan 
Congress, all of which had reached Mexico. Of these facts, in part. Gen. 
Henderson was apprised, and the anticipated rupture of our negotiations 
with Mexico was one reason why I was so careful to require of Gen. Mur- 
phy (endorsed by his Government), such pledges as would secure us 
against all contingencies that might arise to us, in consequence of our 
opening negotiations with the United States, on the subject of annexation. 

*' This Government has been called on, and requested by her Majesty's 
Government, to state our relation to the Government of the United States. 
It was due to England, and her Majesty's Government was informed that 
an agent. Gen. Henderson, had been sent to "Washington City, to negotiate 
upon the subject of annexation 5 but the particulars were not rendered. 
Since this occurred I had an interview with Capt. Elliot, and I do not 
think the British Government will withdraw its friendly offices from the 
subject of Peace between Texas and Mexico. 

" It is reported here, that the Government of the United States has 
refused to sanction the pledges given by General Murphy. This surely 



TRUE POLICY OF THK UNITED STATES. 255 

cannot be the case. If so, you will have found yourselves in a most awk- 
ward dilemma. What — disavow such pledges when they were based upon 
Mr. Upshur's letter ? I cannot believe this, unless the United States de- 
sired Texas to surrender herself to the uncertainty, or chances of annexa- 
tion, contingent upon the various political influences which might interpose 
to the consummation of the object, and subject us to the injurious and 
annoying action of Mexico, instigated by the adhesion of Texas to the 
United States. A refusal on the part of that Government to secure us 
against consequences, which it has produced by direct solicitation of us, 
would be selfish in the extreme, and indeed I cannot conceive appropriate 
terms in which to characterize such conduct and policy, in an official dis- 
patch. It would amount to this only — that if anything could be made 
out of Texas by the United States, they were prepared and willing to de- 
rive the advantage, and if that could not be done, they wished to incur no 
responsibility on the account of Texas, but leave her to all the consequen- 
ces which might possibly result to her from the course which her generosity 
and credulity might induce her to pursue. Pitiable would our situation 
be if we were not annexed, and had required no pledges ; fortunately, 
this is not our situation. 

''You have now all the grounds before you, and I hope you will ponder 
wisely and proceed securely for our safety. 

"It is palpable scandal to the nineteenth century, that statesmen should 
be prating about the emancipation of persons born, and their race held in 
slavery, by the custom and consent of nations for ceijturies, while they 
permit Santa Anna to forge and rivet chains upon eight millions of peo- 
ple who were born free. Thus will the horrors of slavery be increased, 
with design to render his success subservient to the subversion of the lib- 
erties of Texas, and form a new era in the history by degrading to slavery 
a portion of the Anglo-Saxon race. This ought not, and cannot be. It 
argues on the part of statesmen a want of perception, as well as self- 
respect. 

" Gentlemen, you will teep the Government advised by every mail, o,nd 
daily, of important events as they transpire. If you should be thrown for 
future reliance upon the friendly offices of Great Britain and France, you 
will, if possible, ascertain from them if they will act promptly, and what 
conditions they will expect of this Government. 

^' Mr. Van Zandt has written that the United States were not willing to 
form any alliance with Texas, as it was contrary to their policy. Hence 
the necessity, upon the failure of the immediate annexation of this country 



256 TEXAS IN THE UNION. 

to the confederacy of the North, and you will, as I have indicated, 
approach the Governments of England and France. 

'« It is the first duty of statesmen and patriots to insure the liberty and 
well-being of their country. This is now our attitude, and every honest 
man in Texas will justify and approve that policy, which will place us in 
a situation where our liberties are secured, whether it be by annexation or 
the establishment of our Independence. France and England will act 
effectively, if we do not permit ourselves to be trifled with and duped by 
the United States. But of this subject, as your situation may soon call 
your attention to it, you will be the best judges. 

" This letter docs not cancel former instructions from the Department j 
but it is designed to meet emergencies which may arise, or remedy those 
which have already arisen. Having awaited the arrival of your dis- 
patches, and there being no time to forward them, and send a reply from 
the State Department, I have deemed it proper to write to you directly by 
the return mail ; so that you may be ready, in the event of necessity, to 
take such action as our situation may require, and be prepared for contin- 
gencies. I have the honor to be, 

'• Your obt. servant, 

" SAM HOUSTON. 

" To Gex. J. P. Henderson and 

" Hon. Isaac Van Zaxdt, &c. &c., &c.-' 



y. 

Henceforth, for weal or woe, her fortunes were to be mingled 
with the fortunes of the United States. Whether she was to 
regret it, was yet to be seen. She most certainly would have 
repented the day she ever sought refuge under our protection, 
unless she had been allowed to occupy a high and honorable 
place in our Confederacy. She was no outlaw — no menial — nor 
was she to be treated as either. With the richest soil and vast 
natural resources — with a wide territory which stretches from 
the sea, where it blushes under a tropical sun, to the North 
where it whitens with the eternal snow of her mountains — with 
a climate as balmy as the lands which are bathed by the blue 



A HEARTY GREETING TO TEXAS. 251 

waters of the Mediterranean — and, above all, with an ingenious, 
enterprising, and heroic people, she must become the garden 
of the New World. Let it be the pride of every man, whose 
inestimable privilege is to say, " I am an American Citizen," to 
extend towards Texas and the Texans his generous greeting. 
They were long misrepresented and traduced ; but the odium 
has been lifted from their name, for they are a brave and a mag- 
nanimous people ; and let us be- proud everywhere, whether it be 
by the firesides of our northern homes, or in the courts of foreign 
princes, to call them brothers. Let us show to them, and the 
world, that the children of sires who bled at Bunker Hill and 
Yorktown, know how to prize the heroic men who rang out the 
Anglo-Saxon battle-cry over the bloody fi.eld of San Jacinto. 

VI. 

But we are admonished that we may have already trespassed 
too long upon the patience of our readers in these details. Our 
only excuse is, that, in tracing the fortunes of a brave People 
and their heroic Leader, we have been beguiled by the pleasant 
lights and shadows that have fallen over the path where we 
were roaming. 

His predecessor had made war upon the Indians, and carried 
desolation to their peaceful wigwams. In their forest homes 
were heard the wailings of women whose chiefs had fallen by 
the hand of the white man ; and the young Indian boy was sad 
because his Chieftain Father led him out no more on the path 
of the forest game. Houston had seen injustice perpetrated 
upon the Red men, and when his last term began, he at once 
sent the wampum among the forest tribes, and soon after went 
himself, in the Indian dress, to the distant woods, and smoked 
the pipe of peace in the Chieftains' dwellings. He made 
treaties with twenty-four different Chiefs, and they regarded 



258 

these treaties sacredly. Among them he felt safe — he wrapped 
his blanket about him, and laid himself down to sleep by the 
fires of ferocious savages, near whom other white men did not 
dare to venture. "We have nothing to fear from an Indian," 
he used to say, "if we only treat him with justice, and he 
believes us his friends." Peace was again restored along the 
frontiers, and the green corn was again growing luxuriantly by 
the side of the primeval forests, where the savage stealthily 
lurked for his game. 

VII. 

Houston paid ofif a large amount of debt incurred by his 
predecessor, due to other Governments, arising from the prodi- 
gality of the administration. He created no new debt — adminis- 
tered the Government on the basis of the revenues, and left 
the Exchequer Bills issued at the beginning of his term, at 
par, with a considerable surplus in the Treasury. 

He left the country at peace with all the Indian tribes on the 
frontiers — the Navy was laid up in port, for there was no use 
for it — the State was blessed with tranquillity at home, the nation 
was prosperous — emigrants of the better class were rapidly 
pouring in from the North and from Europe ; and the people 
were happy. The prisoners in Mexico were all restored to their 
homes — inland trade with Mexico was brisk and lucrative ; 
— ^Texas was respected by all nations, and Annexation was near 
its consummation. 

YIII. 

Houston's last term expired. He could never be President 
again ; and it was with no little sadness that the people saw him 
lay down the insignia of his office, and take leave of them, to 
return to private life. He was received back with joy by his 



REPRESENTS TEXAS AT WASHINGTON. 259 

family, and they thought that he would part from them no more. 
His home was on a rolling elevation in the midst of a green 
prairie, interspersed with islands of trees, and silver lakes, 
gleaming in the sunlight. His labors, his sorrows, and his strug- 
gles were over, and in the bosom of an afifeclionate family he 
expected to spend the last peaceful years of his stormy life in 
the noble pursuits of the husbandman, 

IX. 

Texas became one of the States of our Confederacy, ana she 
called her old Leader from retirement once more, to represent 
her — but in the Senate at Washington. It is not strange 
that he yielded with deep reluctance — for he felt that in his 
quiet home, he was as happy as the regards of the Nation he 
had saved, the affection and society of his wife and his child, 
and the remembrance of sorrows past and victories won, could 
make him. But he responded to the call of his country, and 
brought his Republic and laid it on our Federal Altar. 

X. 

Houston's youth was wild and impetuous ; but it was spotted 
by no crime, it was not even soiled by indulgence. His early 
manhood was filled with earnestness and daring, but it was 
deformed by no act which lost for him the confidence of the 
virtuous, or the doating love of his mother. We know, too, 
that just as he was stepping upon the theatre of high and bril- 
liant fame, a cloud came over the sky, and wrapped his heart 
and his home in sadness and gloom. 

There is a sorrow which even the Hero cannot bear. The 
storms of life may beat against the frail dwelling of man as 
wildly as they will, and the proud and the generous heart may 



260 Houston's private character. 

still withstand the blast. But when the poisoned shaft of dis- 
appointment strikes the bosom where all we love and live for is 
treasured, the fruit of this world turns to ashes, and the charm 
of life is broken. Then it is that too often reason and bliss take 
their flight together. 

XL 

When this dark cloud fell over the path of Houston, he 
buried his sorrows in the flowing bowl. His indulgences began 
with the wreck of his hopes, and like many noble and generous 
spirits, he gave himself up to the fatal enchantress. But his 
excesses have been exaggerated by his enemies a hundredfold. 
We believe no man can say that he ever saw Houston rendered 
incompetent, by any indulgence, to perform any of the offices of 
private or public life, a single hour. 

XII. 

But the days of his indulgences have long since passed away. 
When the sunlight of domestic happiness again shone through 
his dwelling, and he was sustained once more by that great con- 
servative principle of a man's life, a happy home, illumined by 
the smile of an afi'ectionate and devoted wife — his good angel came 
back again, and for many years no man has been more excmjplary 
in all the duties and all the virtues of the citizen, the father and 
the husband. From that moment he espoused the great cause of 
Virtue and Temperance, with all the earnestness of his nature. 

XIII. 

Whenever an opportunity has been presented, he has elo- 
quently spoken, in public and in private, in favor of that 
beneficent movement, which has restored many thousands of 



THE REFORMER AND THE REFORMED. 261 

generous but misguided men to the long-abandoned embraces of 
weeping families, and to the noble duties of citizenship. And 
who could better tell the horrors and the woes of the poor 
inebriate's life than the man who had experienced them ? Who 
could more eloquently and willingly woo back the wanderer 
to the fold of virtue, than he who had jast returned to its 
hallowed inclosure ? Blessings on the head of the devoted and 
beautiful wife, whose tender persuasions proved too strong for 
the clamors of appetite and the allurements of vice ! In win- 
ning the stricken wanderer back to the pure charities of home, 
she saved the State one of its noblest citizens ; and so benign 
has been the influence of his wonderful example, and so calm, 
and so holy a light beams ceaselessly around the altars of that 
distant Prairie Home, that his children will, with the nation he 
saved, rise up and call him blessed. Houston's indulgences 
never were carried so far as to give a shock to his constitution. 
They were only occasional at any period. ^^ 

XIV. 

And now he finds himself standing on the meridian of life, 
with an erect, well-made form, of perfect health and gigantic 
strength. His hair has been turned grey by Herculean labors, 
but his eye is still soft and clear, and it beams with a smile 
which no man's can wear, whose heart does not overflow with 
love of country and philanthropy to his race. His coun- 
tenance is flushed with the glow of health and cheerfulness, 
which seldom, in a world like ours, lingers after the morning of 
life is passed. And but for occasional days of suffering from 
the wound he received in his right shoulder from two rifle-balls 
at To-ho-pe-ka, forty years ago, he knows no physical ailment. 
Sometimes these sufferings are intense, and he will never be free 
from them while he lives, for no surgical skill has ever been able 



262 THE WOUNDS OF THE PATRIOT. 

to close up that wound. It has discharged every day for more 
than thirty years. In a manner almost miraculous, he has 
entirely recovered from the wound in his ankle received at the 
battle of San Jacinto. 



HOUSTON IN THE NATIONAL SENATE. 263 



SECTION FIFTEENTH. 

HOUSTON IN THE NATIONAL SENATE. 



Such was Houston's character, aiid such had been his achieve- 
ments ten years ago. On the annexation of Texas to the 
United States, he and Gen. Rusk were chosen to represent the 
new State in the National Senate. Our limits preclude us 
from tracing, as fully as we should desire, his Senatorial career. 
Abstaining from general or promiscuous debate, he has never- 
theless been found punctually in his place and prompt at the 
discharge of every duty, and whenever great questions have claim- 
ed the attention of the Senate, his speeches have shown that he 
carefully watched the interests of the country, and was always 
ready to render it his best services. But we must glance over 
the records of his oratory and services for several years, and 
come down to the annus mirabilis of the Republic. 

11. 

The year 1850 — the middle of the Nineteenth Century — 
witnessed a sectional convulsion which threatened the union of 
the American States. The leaders of Parties, and the cham- 
pions of Section, exulted over the prospect of disunion ; and for 
a while, the waves of discord ran so high, that the most enlight- 
ened ond jirominent friends of the Union, became deeply alarm- 
ed. This exio-encv called out all the force of Houston's 



264 Houston's nationality. 

character. He had shed his blood iu the Second War with 
England, where he had learned the science and the practice of 
warfare, from General Jackson himself. He had been the 
leader, the father, and the savior of Texas, on whose soil he had 
again bled in behalf of the independence of a new Republic. 
When he came into the Senate of the United States, he had 
110 private views or sectional feelings to gratify. He felt jealous 
indeed, of the interests of his own State, after she had ceased to 
be an Independent Republic, and its lone star had been added 
to the National Constellation ; but he went into the Senate ^5 
a national man, and every act of his, from that day to this, has 
only stamped his political character as an American statesman, 
with the broadest impress of nationality. 

III. 

If our limits would admit, we should be glad to introduce all 
he said in the midst of that trying crisis of 1850 ; but the whole 
country well knows the course he took at the time ; while we 
are compelled to go on to other events of great significance that 
were fast approaching. 

lY. 

Before the National Convention of 1852 assembled in Balti- 
more, a new spirit had gone over the country — the United 
States of America had become democratic, and the new age of 
the Republic was at hand. General Jackson and his Adminis- 
tration for two terms, had stamped upon the country, deeper 
than it had ever been stamped before, a National Democratic 
Policy. Defeated iu all their great measures, the Whig party — 
embracing as it did so large a number of the noblest and best 
men of the country — had no longer any great common ties to 



SECTIONALISM IX 1860. 265 

bind it together ; and the American people were ready, and 
willing, to blend themselves together, in a Great National Party 
that promised to cement the common patriotic feelings of the 
Nation, and to concentrate the best efforts of all our people, in 
the inauguration of a New Period of Patriotism and enlightened 
administration. 

Y. 

Factions raged — Sectionalism had grown furious — Disunion 
had lifted its serpent head — Abolitionism had inflamed the pas- 
sions of northern men — and everywhere the political sky was 
overcast by ominous clouds that foreshadowed a dark future for 
the great Republic of Washington. But thanks to the God of 
the Universe," that Republic was too great and glorious to be 
suddenly destroyed. Heaven watched over our destinies. The 
great men of all parties in the National Councils, clustered 
around the Federal Altar, where the Fathers of the Republic 
had worshiped ; and laying aside all sectional feeling, deter- 
mined to preserve the integrity of that Union which had cost so 
much blood, and been sanctified by so many years of struggle. 
Great public meetings were everywhere held, in honor of those 
men who had, in this moment of danger, struck their hands 
together in holy love of the Institutions of our Fathers, and 
sworn to defend them to the last. 



VI. 

Such was the feeling of the great men of the country ; and 
of the people of the country, when it became necessary to choose 
a President, in 1852. 

VII. 

Who shpuld the man be? The Whig Convention met, and 
• 12 



266 HOW LOW THE COUNTRY HAD FALLEN. 

three great names came up for their consideration. First of all, 
Fillmore — who had by a painful dispensation of Proyidence been 
called, unexpectedly, to preside over the affairs of the iSation. 
He had done well ; and if, at the time, the country could have 
known how poorly another man would have filled his place, he 
would doubtless" have been nominated for another term of office. 
And there was Webster, incontestably the mightiest man then 
living, as the expounder of the Constitution ; and the eloquent, 
and all but inspired Orator of his age. But the Convention 
deemed it necessary to select the name of the hero of Lundy's 
Lane. He had rendered great services to the Nation ; but 
there was a strong suspicion entertained that some of the 
Catalines of the Repubhc might control the counsels of his 
Cabinet, and that suspicion killed him. And so low had we 
fallen as a people, at that time, that this great man, who had 
fought in all the wars of the Republic, except the war of the 
Revolution — the man who had rendered most signal services 
to the country, in every position he had held — that on an 
electioneering tour, he seemed to lose no opportunity, while 
addressing a mob of foreigners, to announce to them that he 
recognized with enthusiastic delight, their foreign brogue. So 
lately did a popular and a splendid American patriot and hero 
bend his proud back to the vile herd of foreign paupers that 
come upon our shores, as the locusts fell upon the garden land 
of Egypt, eating up every green thing. And yet but a few 
years before, he had from the fullness of his patriotic heart, 
warned his country most fervidly against the dangerous influ- 
ence of foreigners. 

YIII. 

Little, or nothing, was known of Frank Pierce — the man who 
was hit upon by accident, in the Democratic Convention which 
assembled at Baltimore. He had been a member of Congress, 



HOW PIERCE WAS ELECTED. 26T 

although he had clone nothing there, worthy of recollection, 
during the time he held his place. When it was announced 
that he had been a member of the United States Senate, the 
records of that great body unfolded no further information ; but 
some wily demagogues, with the aid of deluded but honest men, 
pitched his name into the Convention at the last moment, when 
its members had grown tired of strife and struggle, for many 
days ; and of course, when the Leaders of the Democratic party 
had all been thrown overboard, "Frank Pierce, of Concord, 
Kew Hampshire," was nominated, almost by acclamation. 
Democracy was satisfied for the moment ; but nationality loent 
by default. 

IX. 

And yet, when Frank Pierce was nominated as a national 
American Candidate, the news was flashed over the country by 
telegraph ; and the nation lifted its hands in gratitude, that there 
was the prospect of an administration which would be broad, 
great, magnanimous, and just. The country clapped its hands 
with exultation, when Frank Pierce was elected ; for he had, 
by every pledge, and sign, and promise known to men, sworn 
fidelity to the great principles of the great Compromise of 1850. 

X. 

Union Whigs rejoiced in the defeat of General Scott ; and 
Webster, from his dying bed, sent to Rufus Choate — his personal 
friend — the message: — "not to mar his future prospects by 
taking one step in the support of Scott." So dear was the 
Union of these States, as the Fathers of the Republic had 
bequeathed it to us, that the mere apprehension that a sectional 
spirit would guide the councils of the Whig Candidate, turned 
against him the irresistible tide of Public Opinion. Frank 



268 THE TREACHERY OF PIERCE. 

Pierce was elected by an unprecedented majority ; for he had 
the votes of twenty-seven States cast in his favor. There was 
not a doubt expressed, nor a foreboding entertained through the 
Republic ; and men everywhere congratulated themselves upon 
the almost unanimous election of a new man, who it was believ- 
ed would represent the country^ its feelings, and its nationality. 
Never, since the time of Washington, has a President gone to 
his inauguration, under auspices which promised more enduring 
fame. All that General Pierce had to do, was to fulfill the 
pledges which he had voluntarily made, and all would have been 
well with him, and the country. 

XI. 

He began his administration, by choosing the leaders of fac- 
tions for his counsellors. Unlike a geueral, he deserted the 
main body of his army, and put into power all the men he could 
find, who had been guilty of mutiny in the camp. He denation- 
alized himself on the start. He did not select a single man for 
office, at home or abroad, who had signalized himself as a leader 
in the great cause which he himself was supposed to represent. 
He started out with the policy that he must buy his enemies, be- 
cause his friends were already secured. 

XII. 

What were the consequences ? By the high and magnani. 
mous policy which had been adopted by the National Democratic 
Convention at Baltimore, he had been selected as the impersona- 
tion of that broad national spirit which was then speaking 
through all the members of that Convention, — which was then 
making itself felt through all the leading Journals of America — 
and through these channels, wise men saw that a new age was 



HIS INFAMOUS ADMINISTRATION. 269 

dawning upon the country ; and thus near the tomb of Washing- 
ton, where Frank Pierce swore allegiance to the Constitution, 
the Compromise Measures, and the nationality of the country; 
the American people gathered in gratitude to Heaven, and with 
enthusiasm to their chief, to sustain the Institutions of their 
Fathers. 

XIII. 

He had indeed chosen for his counsellors, in the beginning, 
men who did not command the confidence of the country ; but 
it was not believed that a man who had been elected under such 
circumstances, and who had made such pledges to the Nation, 
could so foully betray his trust as to gather around him public 
traitors. But this delusion was soon dispelled, for they turned 
out to be either mere adventurers, or worn-out and corrupt 
demagogues, who would buy and sell men. States, principles — 
and the Republic itself, if by doing it they could make something 
at the game. 

XIV. 

This Administration has now been reduced to contempt. It 
is unnecessary to say that it has not only violated every pledge 
it has made — the President has not only refused to do every- 
thing he promised, and done everything he was pledged not to 
do ; but he has disgraced us in the eyes of all foreign nations, 
by sending incompetent and unacceptable men to represent us 
abroad. It will not be denied that, with a very few exceptions, 
he has chosen the worst set of men he could have found in the 
United States, to represent us abroad — Red Republicans — 
German Jews — Filibusters — Factionists — Secessionists — Aboli- 
tionists — Loafers — anybody but men born on the soil, breathing 
the spirit of our Institutions, and comprehending our system of 
government. 



270 AMERICA D E N' AT I X A LIZED. 

XY. 

This will easily account for the fact that the present Adminis- 
tration has not only been reduced to contempt at home, and 
abroad ; but that even those common measures of necessity 
which the exigencies of the country have called for, have 
not been carried through. We have indeed had a bluster about 
the Koszta affair— ^we have bullied Spain — and Frank Pierce 
has bombarded and burned down Greytown. This is all he has 
achieved : — except — planting himself in open hostility to the 
American movement. He is the man who has lifted his puny 
and putrid hand, to arrest the avalanche rush of millions of 
Americans, to secure their birth-right. He does not compre- 
hend the spirit of our Institutions — the spirit of our country — 
nor the spirit of our times. He stands in the way of the People, 
and he will be crushed. He is peddling out his offices to people 
who can play the lackey to him in his decadent fortunes, while he 
has overlooked almost every nol)le national man in the country, 
for offices in his gift. 

XYI. 

He began his Administration by putting a Roman Catholic 
into his Cabinet, as Post-Master-General — and Roman Catholic- 
ism in America, means an attempt to establish " a monarchy on 
Republican soil, ivith a king at Rome^' — and this Post-Master- 
General has not only control of the transmission of public intelli- 
gence to twenty-live millions of people ; but the appointment of 
one hundred thousand office-holders. He continued it, by 
bestowing upon thousands of illiterate, bigoted, monarchical sub- 
jects of Rome, places of trust and profit in the revenue service, 
besides making Catholics and Jesuits, District Attorneys, Mar- 
shals, &c., &c., &c., throughout the United States ; for this man, 
and the crew that he has gathered around him, have carried 



PIERCE VIOLATES THE COMPROMISE M E A S U R E S . 27 1 

things so far, that no upright American who has any pride in 
being an American, is left to do him homage. It seems to have 
been the fate of Frank Pierce to make John Tyler's Adminis- 
tration immortal, by contrasting it with his own. John Tyler 
was not the worst President we have had. 



XVII. 

The most dastardly act which this Concord man has perpe- 
trated, was to violate all the pledges he had given, by concoct- 
ing, with the help of other demagogues, the infamous Nebraska 
Bill — by which a territory, nine times as large as the State of 
New York, over whose soil the Missouri Compromise had 
declared that African slavery, or involuntary servitude should 
never extend, was freely, and without the asking, dedicated to 
slavery. It is a fact bad enough in itself, that slavery, through 
the early wrongs of our mouarchial oppressors, should exist in 
the Republic : but that it should exist at all in the grandest 
Republic of all the ages, is worse still. We understand the 
reasons why, and we can explain the thing to ourselves — just as 
the founders and framers of the Constitution explained it and 
understood it — for we are a cluster of States that understand 
each other, and we agreed, in the beginning, that we would not 
intermeddle with each other's affairs. 

XVIII. 

This was the spirit in which the Compromise Measures were 
passed. Upon the maintenance of this state of things, Frank 
Pierce was elected President, 

When he got into power, all his efforts were directed to their 
overthrow. He is the traitor of all ages ; because he has 
betrayed more pledges, and deceived more men, than any other 



272- HOUSTON ON THE NEBRASKA BILL. 

man that has lived — and he had been preceded by traitors who 
had a hundred times his capacity of doing good, although few 
of them ever attempted to do so much evil. 

Reduced at last below the contempt of decent men, he has 
found himself deserted by all the good who contributed to his 
elevation, and none even appear to stand by him now, except 
those he has bought by place, office, or favors. 

XIX. 

"When Frank Pierce found himself in this degraded position, 
the demagogues who surrounded him, or other demagogues who 
thought they could play a good card over his political coffin, 
proposed the Nebraska Bill. In the indignation of his spirit — 
in the honesty of his political character, and in the might of his 
genius, Sam Houston rose in the Senate, and pronounced the 
following words, which added a new seal to the integrity of his 
political character, and gave new lustre to his patriotism. 



XX. 

Mr. President : This unusual night silting is without precedent in the 
history of any previous Congress at this stage of the session. The extra- 
ordinary circumstances in which we find ourselves placed, would seem to 
indicate a crisis in the affairs of the country of no ordinary importance ; 
a crisis that portends either good or evil to our institutions. 

The extraordinary character of the bill before the Senate, as well as the 
manner in which it is presented to the body, demands the gravest deliber- 
ation. Tliis, sir, is the anniversary of a ijrotriicted session, in which the 
organization of the Territory of Nebraska was elaborately discussed on the 
last day of tl>e last session. In that discussion, which, like this, had kept 
us in our scats to the morning dawn, the prominent points of opposition 
were such as related to the Indian tribes. Such a bill at the present ses- 
sion would have met with no insuperable objections ; but what do we now 
find? A bill entirely variant, and a bill which involves new and important 



UNNECESSARY AGITATION. 273 

principles. It has come an unexpected measure without a harbinger, for 
no agitation was heard of, and the breeze bore no whisper to our ears that 
the Missouri Compromise was to be repealed. 



XXI. 

Its presentation has been as sudden as the measure itself is bold ; and 
the excitement of the public mind is of corresponding intensity. We arc 
told, to be sure, that there is no necessity for agitation, and that soon the 
public mind will be tranquil, and the country will be in a state of repose 
and quiet — as it was at the introduction of this measure. The honorable 
Senator who has just taken his seat (Mr. Douglas), the chairman of the 
Committee on Territories, in his lecture to the South, exhorted them to 
stand by the principle of this bill, with the assurance that it will be good 
for them, and that the country will maintain it. Sir, und'er proper cir- 
cumstances, I should recognize the exhortation ; but is the principle such 
a one as should be adopted by this body, or can it be sanctioned by the 
nation ? Whether it is expedient and useful at this time I shall take the 
liberty to examine. 

XXII. 

Mr. President. I cannot believe that the agitation created by this mea- 
sure will be confined to the Senate Chamber. I cannot believe, from what 
we have witnessed here to-night, that this will be the exclusive arena for 
the exercise of human passions, and the expression of public opinions. If 
the Republic be not shaken, I will thank Heaven fo its kiiidness in 
maintaining its stability. To what extent is it proposed to establish the 
principle of non-intervention ? Are you extending it to a domain inhabited 
by citizens, or to a barren prairie, a wilderness, or even to forty thousand 
wild Indians ? Is this the diffusive excellence of non-intervention? I, sir, 
am for non-intervention upon the principles which have heretofore been 
recognized by this Government. Hitherto Territories have been organized 
— within my recollection Alabama, Missouri, Florida. Arkansas, Missis- 
sippi, Wisconsin, and Iowa have been organized — and the principle now 
proposed was not deemed essential to their well-being ; and is there any 
infirmity in their constitutions or their growth ? Sir, has any malign in- 
fluence attached to them from their simple, economical organization? It 

12* 



274 FANATICISM REBUKED. 

may be that the word " economy" is deemed obsolete in the present condi- 
tion of our Treasury. Were it otherwise, I am simple enough to confess 
that the organization of two Territories— when there are not people to 
constitute an ordinary county in one of the populous States of this Union, 
and when those who do inhabit the Territories are United States soldiers, 
who are not entitled to vote at elections in the States or Territories — is 
not a procedure that can be characterized as economical. If the principle 
of non-intervention be correct, it is correct where the Territories have been 
governed by laws of Congress until they are prepared to make application 
for admission as States. Then they have a right to elect their delegates 
to convention, for the purpose of framing State constitutions, which, if ac- 
cepted by Congress, invest them with all the sovereign rights of States ; 
and then, for the first time, they have the complete power of self-govern- 
ment. A Territory under the tutelage of Congress can form no organic 
laws, either admitting or excluding slavery. A people without organic 
laws might alternately enact and repeal all laws, and reeuact them with- 
out limitation, as they would have no local constitution. Congress has a 
supervision over the action of all Territories until they become sovereign 
States. In the formation of State governments, I can say that they have 
the exclusive right to determine whether they will come into the Union 
with or without slavery. There, sir, is the application of the principle of 
non-intervention, and one that I have always maintained. 



XXIII. 

But gentlemen speak of sovereignty — they say that the people are sov- 
ereign, and supreme. Sir, I bow with all deference to that sovereignty ; 
but I do not apply the principle to the Territories in their unorganized 
and chrysalis condition. Sovereignty implies the power of organization, 
and a self-acting, self-moving and self-sustaining principle ; but the Ter- 
ritories have it not. They only acquire it when they become constituent 
parts of this Confederacy. 

XXIY. 

But we are told that the South has stood by the Compromise. I am 
glad of it. Yet gentlemen have protested against the recognition of North 
and South. Why, sir, they ore recognized every day. The distinction 



THE FACTS OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 275 

has been recognized by the Statesmen of every day, and every section of 
the country. Am I to be told that the question has not assumed that 
character, and that it v/ill not operate to carry sectional influence with it 
to a certain extent? It is impossible that you can divest it of a sectional 
character to some extent. Why, we are told, in the very breath that de- 
clares there is no such principle recognized, that the North has violated 
the Missouri Compromise, and the South has maintained it ; and yet do 
you tell me that there is no North and no South? Let us look at the 
action of the North and South. I am not going back to make a technical, 
or legal, or constitutional argument upx)n the facts and circumstances of 
the Missouri Compromise — its creation, its progress, its recognition, and 
final decision. I am not going to characterize it a compact as distin- 
guished from a compromise, because I can see no reasonable application 
of the one that does not belong to the other. 



XXV. 

The word - compromise'" is a more comprehensive and rational term 
when applied to an amicaljle adjustment of difterences existing between 
two parlies who are reconciled. I well remember that on the organization 
of Oregon Territory, the South denounced the Missouri Compromise, and 
did not recognize it. Was not that denunciation subsequent to a joint 
recognition by both sections of the Union, the North and the South ? 
Had they not united, the South, perhaps, with more unanimity than the 
North, upon its application to Texas in her annexation ? Yes, sir, they 
had. That was in 1845 ; and in 1848, three years after, without any in- 
tervening act of bad faith on the part of the North, the South repudiated 
it on the organization of Oregon Territory. 

Mr. ATCIIISON (Mr. Dodge, of Iowa, in the chair). The Senator saya 
that the southern members of the Senate repudiated the Missouri Compro- 
mise on the Oregon bill. Now that, I think, with all due deference to the 
Senator, is not so. The Senator from Illinois proposed to the Oregon bill 
the Missouri Compromise, and every southern gentleman, according to my 
recollection, voted for it — every one in the Senate. The bill went to the 
House, and the House refused to accede to it. 

Mr. DOUGLAS. Yes, sir. 

Mr. ATCHISON. The Senator from Texas, and mj then colleague, the 
senior Senator from Missouri (Mr. Benton), alone of all the southern 
members voted to recede from it. 



276 THE FACTS OF THE MISSOURI COMPROJIISE. 

XXYI. 

Mr. HOUSTON. I thank the gentleman for giving me a very pleasing 
intimation. It reminds me, Mr. President, of ^7hat did occur. We voted 
to recede from it. The other gentlemen did not vote to recede. 
They had voted in opposition to its organization and admission, or 
what was tantamount to it. And what was the reason? It was 
because there was a proposition, and I had introduced resolutions 
myself, to extend the compromise line to the Pacific ocean. The North 
did not accept it. I cMd not believe it would be more than an abstraction. 
Why did I do it then ? I will tell you. But previous to this, and at the 
time Oregon was organized by the Government, the South went against 
it, I may say, in a body. The southwestern Senators and myself went for 
it, under the heaviest denunciations and anathemas that could be applied 
to any individuals. Yv'as this an abandonment of it by the North? Had 
it been an abandonment of the application of it by the North, or its non- 
application by the South, to Texas ? Did not the North receive five and 
a half degrees of slave territory from Texas, and in consideration of that 
cede to Texas the right of forming four States in addition to the one then 
formed? Call it a compact or compromise as you please ; but then it as- 
sumed the character of a compact when applied to Texas, because Texas 
came in recognizing that as a principle concurred in by the North and the 
South. They both applied it to Texas, and it was upon it that she came 
in. And so far, certainly, it was a compact with her. Is not Texas inter- 
ested in that ? Did she not consider the Missouri Compromise practically 
a compact, so far as she is concerned ? Because she predicated her own 
upon it. And if you deprive her of the benefits resulting from and de- 
clared by that compact, when are her four States to come in, if the North 
has the ascendancy? Cannot they exclude them when they please if the 
Missouri Compromise be repealed? We hold them by an obligation which 
it would be dishonorable and infamous to abandon. You cannot repeal 
that compromise without the consent of Texas. Remember, Texas was an 
independent nation, a sovereignty, when she came into this Union. She 
had rights equal to those possessed by this country; institutions quite as 
good, and a more harmonious structure of her community. Now, will 
there not be a liability that these four additional States may be denied to 
Texas? Texas insists upon this right in my person, as one of her repre- 
sentatives. I claim it as no boon bestowed. I ask it as no gift. The 
State demands it as aright, to form four additional States, if she should 
elect to do so. 



EFFECTS OF REPEAL UPON THE SOUTH. 277 

XXVII. 

But what would the repeal of this Compromise amount to ? An ab- 
straction ? What would the South be benefited by it ? By the amend- 
ment of the Senator from North Carolina, the bill is perfectly eviscerated, 
or, to use a senatorial term, because I think it may be applied with more 
propriety, elegantly emasculated. Yes, sir, it amounts to nothing. It 
holds a promise to the ear, but breaks it to the hope. If it is ever to be 
repealed, I want no empty promises. They have not been asked for by 
the South. They are not desired ; "and, so far as I am concerned, they 
will never be accepted. Neither my colleague nor myself have ever been 
consulted in relation to this subject. On the contrary, we have been seda- 
lously excluded from all consultation. I have never had an intimation 
that a conference was to take phice, a caucus to be held, or stringent mea- 
sures applied in the passage of this bill. Nothing of the kind. I have 
been in the dark in relation to it. I feel that Texas has as important an 
interest as any other section of this Union in the repeal of the Compromise, 
and would be as vitally affected by it. She must be eventually, if calami- 
ties are to fall upon the South, the most unfortunate of all that portion of 
the Union. 



XXYIII. 

I will give you my reasons why I think Texas would be in the most 
deplorable condition of all the Southern States. It is now the terminus of 
the slave population. It is a country of vast extent and fertile soil, (avor- 
able 10 the culture and growth of those productions which are most impor- 
tant to the necessities of the world — cotton, sugar, and tobacco. Aa 
immense slave population must eventually go there. The demand for labor 
is so great, everything is so inviting to the enterprising and industrious, 
that labor will be transferred there, because it will be of a most profitable 
character, and the disproportion of slaves to the white population must be 
immense. Then, sir, it becomes the gulf of slavery, and there its terrible 
eddies will whirl, if convulsions take place. I have a right, therefore, to 
claim some consideration in the Senate for the effect which the repeal of 
this Compromise will have upon our State. I have a right to demand it, 
and demand it for other reasons than those which I formerly gave here, 
that were personal to myself. 



278 INTEGRITY OF THE COMPROMISE. 



XXIX. 

It is alleged that the refusal on the part of the North to continue the 
Missouri Compromise line over the acquisitions of 1847 and 1848 was a 
repudiation of the Compromise. That may be thought technically true. 
I grant that a proposition was made, or a Compromise entered into by 
the North and South, to extend the Missouri Compromise as far as the 
jurisdiction of the United States extended. That was to the Pacific ocean. 
"When it was, by contract, carried on through Texas on its annexation, then, 
if I understand it, it was a new line — a continuation of the old line by 
sonsent. It was established there by a compact with Texas ; for by the 
original Missouri Compromise it could only extend as far as the jurisdic- 
tion of the United States went. Then the proposition to continue it to 
the Pacific was a new and substantive proposition. Though it might 
refer to the original principle of the old, it had no more connection with 
it than the Atlantic has with the Pacific. 



XXX. 

I understand, if individuals make a contract, whether they enter into it 
in writing, or not, if it is to be executed by any given time, and subse- 
quently it is proposed by one of the parties to make another contract, 
which involves not the first, but is made because it is convenient to extend 
the first further, the refusal of one of the parties to agree to the second, 
does not invalidate the former contract. This is a kind of argument I 
have never heard resorted to, except in favor of the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise. I have a great deal of veneration for that Compromise. I 
recollect the time when I was tried in the Senate Chamber upon its prin- 
ciples. There are Senators here Avho well remember that I was denounced, 
more in manner than in words, when I said I planted myself upon the Mis- 
souri Compromise line, and that astride of it I would stand, if needs be, 
and that there I would do battle, and there would I perish in the defence 
of the rights of the South. That was emphatic language, and I felt all 
that I uttered. Sir, I have some reverence for it ; and if I should feel such 
reverence, it is not unreasonable that I should have determinations, too, 
which will not be changed by all the technical and abstract notions which 
have been adduced and relied upon to enlighten the public mind, to manu- 



THE PRESENT MEASURE UNCALLED FOR. 279 

facture public sentiment here, and to give direction to it abi'oad. Sir, I 
have no idea tliat the public sentiment is to be subverted, and I assure 
yciu that the North, or West, or South, cannot be willing that this should 
be done. No one can deprecate more than I do the fearful agitations 
which, I apprehend, will follow this ; but after the manifestations which 
we have had here, nothing that I can utter will affect those who are 
present, or certify to them what must be the inevitable consequence, out 
of this Hall, when agitation is rife abroad. Do these gentlemeu say that 
I have not made any argument on this point? It is, sir, because I was 
not sufficiently skilled to meet the refined arguments that were adduced 
in favor of the repeal. What necessity has grown up for the adoption of 
this measure since 1850 ? None had resulted at this time last year. None 
has been heard of. 



XXXI. 

Three years have passed in tranquillity and peace. Yet the gentleman 
who urges the measure thinks that he would have been derelict to his duty 
he had not brought things to their present condition, and presented the mat- 
ter in the shape in which it now stands. If it was necessary at all, it was 
necessary last year. No new developments have been made. The great prin- 
ciple of non-intervention existed then. There Is no new demand for it now. 
Is not that a reason why this bill ought not to pass ? Was there any new 
indication given of its necessity up to the time that the bill was introduced 
here? None throughout the whole land. How, and where, and why, 
and when, and with whom this measure originated, Heaven only knows, 
for I have no cognizance of the facts ; but I well know that persons 
deeply involved in it, and exercising senatorial privileges here, never 
receired information that such a measure would be brought forward, or 
would be urged with that pertinacity with which it is now done. Little 
did we think that it was to be urged upon us as a great healing measure. 
The honorable Senator from Virginia [Mr. Mason] said last night, that 
this is to be regarded as a great healing measure for the purpose of pre- 
venting agitation. Sir, 1 heard of no agitation until it arose here, nor 
would there have been any this day in the United States, if the bill in the 
form in which it was presented last year, had been brought forward and 
adopted without any provision either for non-intervention or the repeal 
of the Missouri compromise. 



280 VIEWS OF PRESIDENT POLK. 

XXXII. 

So far back as 1848,. I find that President Polk recognized the Missouri 
Compromise as of binding force upon this country. He considered it not 
only binding upon the North in relation to the South, but, as the Chief 
Magistrate of this Union,, he regarded it as binding upon the South, 
because it accorded certain privileges to the South ; for he says, when 
speaking in relation to his approval of the Oregon bill, that he approved 
it because it lay north of 36^ 30' ; but had it lain south of 36° 30', he 
would not say what action he would have taken upon it ; clearly intimating 
that he would have vetoed the bill, regarding as he did the Missouri Com- 
promise as obligatory on the two sections of the Union. How has it been 
repudiated since that time? "Was it repudiated and superseded, or ren- 
dered null and void, by the Compromise of 1850 ? No such thing. Do 
you think that the astute statesmen, the men who managed and controlled 
the business of that Compromise, as much as any other men versed and 
skilled in legal lore and in general learning, men of acumen and keen 
perceptions, would have permitted that matter to go unexplained, if it 
ever had been contemplated to repeal the Missouri Compromise? Mr. 
Clay and Mr. Webster ^Yould never have done it. Yet no information was 
given that any such design was entertained by any member of this body 
I am sure that, for one, 1 did not entertain it. Other gentlemen, more 
astute than myself, might have done so, but I am confident that it was not 
the general understanding that non-intervention was to be applied to these 
Territories because they lay north of 30° 30'. 



XXXIII. 

I again ask, what benefit is to result to the South from this measure, if 
adopted? I have shown, I hope, that if you repeal this Missouri Compro- 
mise, Texas has no guarantee left for the multiplication of her States, if 
she chooses to make thorn. What are its advantages ? Will it secure 
these Territories to the South ? No, sir, not at all. But, the gentleman 
tells us, it is the principle that we vvant. I can perceive but one principle 
involved in the measure, and that principle lies at the root of agitation ; 
and from that all the tumult and excitements of the country must arise. 
That is the only principle I can perceive. We are told by southern, as 
well as northern gentlemen, those who are for it, and those who are 



EFFECTS OF REPEAL UPON THE COUNTRY. 281 

against it, that slavery will never be extended to that territory, that it 
will never go there ; but it is the principle of non-intervention that it is 
desired to establish. Sir, we have done well uuder the intervention of 
the Missouri Compromise, if the gentlemen so call it, in other Territories ; 
and, I adjure you, wnen there is so much involved, not to press this matter 
too far. What is to be the consequence ? If it is not in embryo, my sug- 
gestion will not make it so. It has been suggested elsewhere, and I may 
repeat it here, what is to be the effect of this measure if adopted, and you 
repeal the Missouri Compromise ? The South is to gain nothing by it ; for 
honorable gentlemen from the South, and especially the junior Senator 
from Virginia [Mr. Hunter], characterize it as a miserable, trifling little 
measure. Then, sir, is the South to be propitiated or benefited by the 
conferring upon her of a miserable, trifling little measure? Will that 
compensate the South for her uneasiness? Will it allay the agitation 
of the North? Will it preserve the union of these States? Will it 
sustain the Democratic or the Whig party in their organizations? 
No, sir, they all go to the wall. What is to be the eftect on this 
Government? It is to be most ruinous and fatal to the future har- 
mony and well-being of the country. I think that the measure itself 
would be useless. If you establish intervention, you make nothing by 
that. But what will be the consequence in the minds of the people ? They 
have a veneration for that Compromise. They have a respect and reve- 
rence for it, from its antiquity and the associations connected with it, and 
repeated references to it that seem to suggest that it marked the bound- 
aries of free and slave territory. They have no respect for it as a com- 
pact — I do not care what you call it — but as a line, defining certain rights 
and privileges to the different sections of the Union. The abstractions 
which you indulge in here can never satisfy the people that there is not 
something in it. Abrogate it or disannul it, and you exasperate the 
public mind. It is not necessary that reason should accompany excite- 
ment. Feeling is enough to agitate without much reason, and that will 
be the great prompter on this occasion. My word for it, we shall realize 
scenes of agitation Avhich are rumbling in the distance now. 

XXXIY. 

I have heard it said, and may as well remark it now, that the Aboli- 
tionists and Free-Soilers, to a certain extent, will affiliate with the weaker 
political party at the North, the Whigs, and will make a fair contest with 



282 HOUSTON WILL NOT SWERVE FROM DUTY. 

the Democrats. If they throw this question in the scale, and the Demo- 
crats do not, they will preponderate. Then how are the Democrats to 
sustain themselves under this pressure ? Suppose the repeal of the Fugitive 
Slave Law, or the repeal of the Compromise of 1850 is proposed, and the 
Democrats oppose it ; they will meet with the objection that it is not more 
sacred than the Missouri Compromise, and the repeal will be urged before 
the people 5 and we shall see our House of Representatives with a prepon- 
derating power of Abolitionism, the principles of which will triumph. 
Every Representative who votes for this measure will be prostrated ; he 
cannot come back, or, if he comes back, he will be pledged to the repeal 
of a measure fraught with so many blessings of peace to the country. 
With all the fancied benefits of non-intervention, they caunot overbalance 
the disastrous consequences that must ensue to our institutions. 

XXXV. 

This is an eminently perilous measure, and do you expect me to remain 
here silent, or to shrink from the discharge of my duty in admonishing the 
South of what I conceive the results will be ? I will do it in spite of all 
the intimidations, or threats, or discountenances that may be thrown upon 
me. Sir, the charge that I am going with the Abolitionists or Free- 
Soilers aflFects not me. The discharge of conscious duty prompts me often 
to confront the united array of the very section of the country in which I 
reside ; In which my associations are ; in which my personal interests have 
always been, and in which my affections rest. When every look to the 
setting sun carries me to the bosom of a family dependent upon me, think 
you I could be alien to them ? Never — never. Well, sir, if I am now 
accidently associated with Abolitionists, in voting against this measure of 
repeal — if I vote with them, and with individual Senators with whom my 
relations have always been courteous and polite personally, they well 
know that I feel no sympathy with their notions — that I think them 
fanatical — I do not esteem it a greater misfortune attendant upon me 
than I have witnessed before, in this Chamber, with other Senators from 
the South. In the passage of the Compromise bill of 1850, I saw asso- 
ciations of extremes quite as extraordinary as on this occasion. I almost 
thought that the extremes of the Abolitionists and Secession parties had 
become Siamese twins ; they were so intimate that I could not help but 
remark it. 

MR. SEWARD. Who? 



OPINION OP GENERAL CASS 283 

XXXYI. 

Mr. HOUSTON. I need not mention who ; I merely throw out the sug- 
gestion. I do not inquire into the motive which induced the introduction 
of this bill into the Senate. I cast no reflections on gentlemen either for 
its introduction or for its support ; but I deprecate the consequences which 
will flow from it. I have conversed with several Senators, and I have 
never hear the first who would not admit that it was an unfortunate and 
ill-advised measure. The venerable and distinguished Senator from Michi- 
gan [Mr, Cass], the other day, in his speech, declared, in substance, that 
he thought it was an unfortunate circumstance that it had ever been intro- 
duced into the Senate, although it meets with his approbation when it is 
here. And now, when he who has been in the councils and transactions 
of this country for fifty years, who has witnessed all the vicissitudes and 
mutations through which the country has passed, who has been an actor 
in the most important scenes of the Union — when he does not recognize it 
as a healing and welcome measure, I ask Senatorsif I err in resisting it? 
They say it is here. It is here, and if I had the power, I would kick it 
out. What, if a measure unwholesome or unwise is brought into the Sen- 
ate, and it comes from the party of which I am a member, and its intro- 
duction is an error, is it not my duty to correct that error as far as I 
possibly can ? Sir, I stand here for that general purpose. My constitu- 
ents send me here for that purpose. 



XXXYII. 

But I will not admit for a moment that this meets the sanction of the 
Executive. All his antecedents are in the face of it. Supporting him as 
I did, I must believe him consistent and truthful. He is upon the record 
as an opponent to agitation of any kind, whether in the Halls of Congress 
or anywhere else. He is pledged to keep down and resist agitation, as far 
as in his power : and that the institutions of the country shall sustain no 
*' shock ''' during his Administration. If this bill passes, will there be 7io 
shock? Depend upon it, Mr. President, there will be a tremendous shock . 
it will convulse the country from Maine to the Rio Grande. The South 
has not asked for it. I, as the most Southern Senator upon this floor, do 
not desire it. If it is a boon that is offered to propitiate the South, I, as 
a Southern man, repudiate it. I reject it. I will have none of it. 



284 JAGOBANDESAU. 

XXXYIII. 

Mr. President, not in any spirit of unkindness— not entertaining 
unfrienrlly or ungentle feelings, — I will allude here,by way of illustration, 
to one of the most beautiful and captivating incidents in the Holy Bible 
—one that shows a forgetting, and kind, and amiable, and forgiving tem- 
per, which, even under a sense of deep injuries, was willing to embrace a 
brother, and forget the past. I need not relate to this iotelligent assem- 
bly the history of Esau and Jacob. The birthright and the mess of 
pottage are familiar to all. The two brothers separated in anger, after 
Jacob had acquired the blessing which should have been given to Esau, and 
Jacob fled to Laban, his mother's brother, in a distant country, where he 
greatly prospered. Afterwards, when he separated his flocks from those of 
his father-in-law, it became necessary for him to journey through the land of 
of his brother Esau, who was then a man of influence, and power, and 
wealth. As Jacob approached, he thought it was necessary to propitiate his 
brother for the wrong which he had done him, and he supposed he could not 
do that without some atonement, or some gift. He dispatched a portion of 
his family, some of his handmaidens, and children, and servants, with a 
drove of cattle, which he intended as an offering to his brother ; and the 
sacred narrative says that when Esau heard that his brother was journey- 
ing towards his land, "Esau ran to meet him; and they embraced and 
kissed each other ; and they wept.-' Now I do not see why the North and 
South, if they have been separated, might not embrace each other without 
any feeling of anger. But, after some colloquy had taken place between 
the brothers, Esau said : '• What meanest thou by this drove which Iniet ?■' 
And Jacob said, "These are to find grace in the sight of my Lord." 
And Esau then made a reply worthy of a generous spirit. He said : " / 
have enough, my brother ; keep that thou hast unto thyself P 

XXXIX. 

So, if this is an offering to propitiate the South, the South may say, 
" I have enough, my brother ; keep that thou hast unto thyself.-' If this 
is the only offering tendered to the South, we will not ask it ; we do not 
want it ; the people will be angry if you give it ; and I never want to 
' make trouble with my friends at home. I would rather you would keep 
it. If you are indebted in anything to the South, all I have to say is, that 
you might find some other occasion when it would be more agreeable to 



CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE COMPROMISE. 285 

cancel the obligation. The South, as a community, only desire their 
rights under the Constitution and existing compromises. 



But, sir, the people are not going into abstractions to understand this 
subject. Nor will there be a lawyer at every point, every cross-road, 
every public meeting, every muster, or every court-house, to give elabo- 
rate dissertations upon the unconstitutionality of the Missouri Compromise. 
I care nothing about its constitutionality or unconstitutionality. Not one 
straw do I care about it, on account of the circumstances out of which it 
grew, and the benefits flowing from it. Mr. Jeflferson said he could not 
find constitutional authority for the acquisition of Louisiana. If that was 
the case, even if the Compromise, based upon an unconstitutional act, to 
reconcile the different sections of the country, was without authority of the 
Constitution, it became a legitimate subject of legislation. I say legiti- 
mate, because it was an acquisition of territory which must be governed 
in some manner suited" to the exigencies of the occasion. Hence the 
resort to the principle of compromise, and to legislation. Was the acqui- 
sition of Florida constitutional ? I think not. Yet we retain it as one of 
our States. Was the acquisition of Texas constitutional ? No, sir, it was 
not. It was a mere act of legislation on the part of this Government — 
a compromise — precisely such as the compromise which this bill proposes 
to repeal. But Texas is in, and you cannot thrust us out ; and that is the 
whole of it. But it is not constitutional. If it is not, and validity 
attaches only to compacts, in contradistinction to compromises, then this 
is a compact predicated upon the compromise of Missouri. 



XLI. 

I do not know whether it is constitutional, technically. It is suflBcient 
for me to know that it has stood for more than thirty years, and received 
the approbation of our wisest and ablest statesmen, from the day of its 
adoption down to the present, and was never questioned until after the 
commencement of the present session of Congress. It is strange that an 
unconstitutional law should have remained so long in force amid all the 
agitation, and excitement, and bitterness between the North and the 
South ; and that this is the first proposition ever made to repeal it. Have 



286 HENRY CLAY AGITATION OF 1850. 

we to yield to it without any necessity, and without any excuse for it, 
when we see that discord will run riot in our land ? 



Sir, the occasion to which I have alluded, was not the only one on 
which I said I was willing to stand on the Missouri Compromise line, in 
defence of the rights of the South. On another occasion, it will be recol- 
lected in this Chamber, when speaking of the obligations the country was 
under to a distinguished statesman, then in private life, and whose party 
had postponed his claim, or pretermitted it, or, in common parlance, laid 
him on the shelf, I said, that when the Missouri agitation was quieted, 
he was held throughout the land as a great pacificator ; and if he had 
committed a mountain of sins, that single achievement of tranquilizing 
the great Republic, giving permanency, peace, and growth to its institu- 
tions, would have overbalanced them all. I said that Henry Clay 
deserved a monument of bronze, of marble, or of gold, to be placed in the 
rotunda of the Capitol, for men in aftertimes of great excitement to con- 
template, and look upon as a man who blessed his country. That was the 
sentiment I entertained, and it arose from veneration, not only for the 
man, but for the needed restoration of harmony to our native land. Were 
I to make such a declaration now, it would be thought that it was an 
endeavor to bring this bill into discredit. No, sir, nothing is necessary 
from me to discredit it ; for it is its own condemnation under the circum- 
stances in which it is presented here, at this time, in the midst of unity, 
peace, and harmony, while all is at rest, with not a ripple on the vast 
ocean of our community. I have seen agitation and bitterness before. 

XLII. 

I recollect when I ventured to make the first address in this Chamber on 
the subject of the agitation in 1850, with what discountenance it was 
received. So little was there a disposition to harmonize, that lohen I 
suggested that six Senators, without regard to party or section, might 
be selected from the members of this body, who could compose an 
Address and send it abroad so as to harmonize the country, and hush 
the fierce waves of political agitation that were then lashing the base 
of this Capitol, it met with no reponse. Well, we subsequently obtained 



POSITION OF THE NORTHERN DEMOCRACY. 28T 

peace and harmony. Let us preserve it. And there is no mode by which 
we can so eflfectually accomplish that object, as by rejecting the proposed 
measure. I had fondly hoped, Mr. President, that having attained to my 
present period of life, I should pass the residue of my days, be they many 
or few, in peace and tranquillity ; that as I found the country growing up 
rapidly, and have witnessed its immeasurable expansion and development, 
wlien I closed my eyes on scenes around me, I would at least have the 
cherished consolation and hope that I left my children in a peaceful, 
happy, prosperous, and united community. I had hoped this. Fondly 
bad I cherished the desire and the expectation from 1850 until after the 
introduction of this bill. My hopes are less sanguine now. My anxieties 
increase, but my expectation lessens. Sir, if this repeal takes place, I will 
have seen the commencement of the agitation ; but the youngest child 
now born, I am apprehensive, will not live to witness its termination. 
Southern gentlemen may stand up and defend this measure. They may 
accept it from the Northern gentlemen who generously bestow it ; but if 
it were beneficial to the South, it would have been asked for. It was not 
asked for — nor will it be accepted by the people. It furnishes those in 
the North, who are enemies of the South, with efiScient weapons to con- 
tend with. 

XLIY. 

The Democracy in the North have stood firm to party ties. They have 
fought gallantly for our rights. If we pass this bill how can they main- 
tain themselves? How can their representatives return to them and say: 
"We gave it?" Would not the reply be : "You gave it ; then you are, 
faithless servants, and we will put you down ; you disgraced your party ; 
you have given away a sacred thing, a pledge, a compromise thirty-four 
years old, which was venerated for its antiquity, and national benefits 
derived from it ?" Depend upon it, they will be held to a strict account. 
They will have to answer for it. I call upon you to sustain those who 
stood by you of the South in opposition to those whose fanaticism, and 
prejudice, and misguided feeling would have wrested your rights from 
you. If you place them and their party in the predicament which I have 
mentioned, you will be doing them great injustice. 

XLY. 

Mr. President. I have very little hope that any appeal which I can make 



288 VINDICATION OF THE INDIANS. 

for the Indians will do any good. The honorable Senator from Indiana 
[Mr. Pettit], says, in substance, that God Almighty has condemned 
them, and has made them an inferior race ; that there is no use in doing 
anything for them. With great deference to that Senator, for whom I 
have never cherished any but kind feelings, I must be permitted to dissent 
from his opinions. He says they are not civilized, and they are not homo- 
geneous, and cannot be so, with the white race. They cannot be civilized ! 
No ! Sir, it is idle to tell me that. We have Indians on our western bor- 
ders whose civilization is not inferior to our own. It is within the recol- 
lection of gentlemen here that, more than twenty years ago. President 
Hoss, one of them, held a correspondence upon the rights of the Indians 
to the Cherokee country, which they possessed east of the Mississippi, and 
maintained himself in the controversy with great credit and ability ; and 
the triumph of Mr. Adams, if it was one, was much less than he had 
obtained over the diplomatist of Spain [Mr. Don Onis], in relation to the 
occupation of Florida by General Jackson. The Senator from Indiana 
says that, in ancient times, Moses received a command to go and drive 
the Canaanites and Moabites out of the land of Canaan, and that Joshua 
subsequently made the experiment of incorporating one tribe of the hea- 
then with the Israelites, but it finally had to be killed off. Therefore, 
the Senator concludes, the Cherokees cannot be civilized. There may 
have been something statesmanlike in the policy, but I do not discover 
the morality of it. I will say, however, that there is no analogy between 
the two cases. The people of Judea who were killed, or exterminated, 
were idolaters, and the object was to keep the people of Israel free from 
the taint of idols and idolatry, under the command of Providence, and 
therefore the extermination in His dispensation became necessary. But the 
Cherokees never have been idolaters, neither have the Creeks, nor the 
Choctaws, nor the Chickasaws. They believe in one Great Spirit — in God 
— the white man's God. They believe in his Son Jesus Christ, and his 
atonement, and propitiation for the sins of men. They believe in the 
sanctifying efficacy of the Holy Ghost. They bow at th« Christian's altar, 
and they believe the Sacred Volume. Sir, you may drive these people 
away, and give their lands to the white man ; but let it not be done upoa 
the justification of the Scriptures. They have well-organized societies ; 
they have villages and towns ; they have their state-houses and their 
Capitols ; they have females and men who would grace the drawing-rooms 
or saloons of Washington ; they have a well-organized judiciary, a trial 
by jury, and the writ of habeas corpus. These are the people for whom T 



THEIR SOCIAL CONDITION. 289 

demand justice in the organization of these Territories. They are men of 
education. They have more than one hundred native preachers in those 
tribes, as I have heard. They have their colleges, as I remarked in my 
former address to the Senate on this subject. They become associated in 
friendship with our young men in the various institutions in the United 
States ; and they are prepared to be incorporated upon equal terms with 
us. But even if they were wild Indians, untutored, when you deprive 
them of what would give them knowledge, and discourage them from 
making an effort to become civilized and social beings, how can you ex- 
pect them to be otherwise than savage ? 



XLVI. 

Wlien you undertake to tame wild horses, do you turn them from you 
and drive them into the desert, or do you take care of them and treat 
them with humanity? These Indians are not inferior, intellectually, to 
white men. John Ridge was not inferior in point of genius to John 
Randolph. His father, in point of native intellect, was not inferior to 
any man. Look at their social condition, in the nations to which I have 
alluded. Look at the Chickasaws who remain in the State of Mississippi. 
Even among white men, with all their prejudices against the Indians, 
with their transcendent genius and accomplishments, they have been 
elected to the Legislature. Whenever they have had an opportunity, 
they have shown that they are not inferior to white men. either in sense 
or capability. 

XLYIL 

But the honorable Senator from Iowa [Mr. Dodge] characterizes the 
remarks which I made in reference to the Indians as arising from a 
feeling of " sickly sentimentality." Sir, it is a sickly sentimentality that 
was implanted in me when I was young, and it has grown up with me. 
The Indian has a sense of justice, truth, and honor, that should find 
a responsive chord in every heart. If the Indians on the frontier are 
barbarous, or if they are cannibals, and eat each other, who are to blame 
for it ? They are robbed of the means of sustenance ; and with hundreds 
and thousands of them starving on the frontier, hunger may prompt to 
Buch acts to prevent their perishing. "We shall never become cannibals 
in connection with the Indians: but we do worse than that. We rob 

13 



290 SHAMEFUL ROBBERY OF THE INDIANS. 

them, first of tlieir native dignity and character ; we rob them next 
of what the Government appropriates for them. If we do not do it in 
this Hall, men are invested with power and authority, who, officiating as 
agents or traders, rob them of everything which is designed for them. 
No less than one hundred millions of dollars, I learn from statistics, 
since the adoption of this Government, have been appropriated by Con- 
gress for purposes of justice and benevolence towards the Indians ; but I am 
satisfied that they have never realized j?/ifeen millions beneficially. They 
are too remote from the scat of Government for their real condition to be 
understood here ; and if the Government intends liberality or justice 
towards them, it is often diverted from the intended object and consumed 
by speculators. 

XLVIII. 

I am a friend of the Indian, upon the principle that I am a friend to 
justice. We are not bound to make them promises ; but if a promise be 
made to an Indian, it ought to be regarded as sacredly as if it were 
made to a white man. If we treat them as tribes, recognize them, send 
commissioners to form treaties and exchange ratifications with them, 
and the treaties are negotiated, accepted, ratified, and exchanged — 
having met with the approval of the Senate — I think they may be called 
compacts; and how are those compacts regarded? Just as we chooSe 
to construe them at the time, without any reference to the wishes , 
of the Indians, or whether we do them kindness or justice In the 
operation, or not. We are often prompted to their ratification by 
persons interested ; and we lend ourselves unintentionally to an unjust 
act of oppression upon the Indians by men who go and get their 
signatures to a treaty. The Indian's mark is made ; the employees 
of the Government certify or witness it ; and the Indians do not under 
stand it, for they do cot know what is written. These are some of the 
circumstances connected with the Indians. Gentlemen have spoken here 
of voting millions to build ships, and placing the Army and Navy at 
the disposition of the President in the event that England act inconsist- 
ently with treaty stipulations. This is done because, if England violates 
a treaty with us, our national honor is injured. Now, I should like to 
know if it becomes us to violate a treaty made with the Indians when wc 
Ijlease, regardless of every principle of truth and of honor. We should 
be careful if it were with a pov/er able to war with us ; and it argues a 



DUTY OF C N G R E S S TOWARDS THEM. 291 

degree of infinite meanness and indescribable degradation on our part to 
act differently with the Indians, who confide in ojir honor and justice, and 
who call the President their Great Father, and confide in him. Mr. Presi- 
dent, it is in the power of the Congress of the United States to do some 
justice to the Indians by giving them a government of their own, and 
encouraging them in their organization and improvement by inviting their 
delegates to a place on the floor of the Senate and house of Representa- 
tives. If you will not do it, the sin will lie at your door, and Providence, 
in His own way, mysterious and incomprehensible to us though it is, will 
accomplish all His purposes, and may at some day avenge the wrongs of 
the Indians upon our nation. As a people we can save them ; and the 
sooner the great work is begun, the sooner will humanity have cause to 
rejoice in its accomplishment. 



XLIX. 

Mr. President, I shall say but little more. My address may have been 
desultory. It embraces many subjects which it would be very hard to 
keep in entire order. We have, in the first place, the extensive territory ; 
then we have the considerations due to the Indians ; and then we have the 
proposed repeal of the Missouri Compromise, which seems to require the 
most explanation, and to be the main point in the controversy. The 
great principle involved in that repeal is non-intervention, which, we are 
told, is to be of no practical benefit, if the Compromise is repealed. It 
can have no effect but to keep up agitation. 



Sir, the friends who have survived the distinguished men who took pro- 
minent parts in the drama of the compromise of 1850, ought to feel 
gratified that those men are not capable of participating in the eventa of 
to-day, but that they were permitted, after they had accomplished theii* 
labors, and seen their country in peace, to leave the world, as Simeon did, 
with the exclamation : " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in 
peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." They departed in peace, 
and they left their country in peace. They felt, as they were about to 
be gathered to the tombs of their fathers, that the country they had 
loved so well, and which had honored them— that country upon whose 



292 THE PACIFICATORS OF 1850. 

fame aud name their doings had shed a bright lustre which shines abroad 
throughout all Christendom — was reposing in peace and happiness. What 
would their emotions be if they could now be present and see an effort 
made, if not so designed, to undo all their work, and to tear asunder 
the cords that they had bound around the hearts of their countrymen ? 
They have departed. The nation felt the wound : and we see the memo- 
rials of woe still in this Chamber. The proud symbol (the eagle) above 
your head remains enshrouded in black, as if deploring the misfortune 
which has fallen upon us, or as a fearful omen of future calamities which 
await our nation, in the event this bill should become a law. Above it I 
behold the majestic figure of Washixgtox, whose presence must ever 
inspire patriotic emotions, and command the admiration and love of every 
American heart. By these associations I adjure you to regard the con- 
tract once made to harmonize and preserve this Union. Maintain the 
Missouri Compromise ! Stir not up agitation f Give us peace ! 

LI. 

This much I was bound to declare — in behalf of my country, as I 
believe, and I know in behalf of my constituents. In the discharge of 
my duty I have acted fearlessly. The events of the future are left in the 
hands of a wise Providence. 

LII. 

Frank Pierce's Nebraska and Kansas Bill, had long been under 
discussion, and as bis partisans in the Senate were numerous 
enough to pass it when they pleased. General Houston rose in his 
place late on Friday night, March 3d, 1854, and delivered the 
following great argument. It was the last and most power- 
ful remonstrance that fell on the ears of that Senate, until the 
vote was taken. Let men read it at the North and the South — 
for it speaks the truth to America — our common country. Its 
prophecies have already become history. 

LIIL 
Such were the noble words, which late that night fell from 



REMONSTRANCES AGAINST THE NEBRASKA BILL. 293 

the lips of Houston. His speech, although pronounced in the 
fervor of his native and impetuous eloquence, is already by the 
march of events conserted into history. It seems at the first 
blush as though it must have been changed since its delivery — 
so perfect a transcript is it now of what has since taken place. 
But we copy it from the official Congressional Report. 

Liy. 

The prospect of the overthrow of the Missouri Compromise, by 
the Congress of the United States, spread general alarm through- 
out the country. Petitioners by tens of thousands sent in their 
remonstrances and memorials, praying that the Bill might not 
pass. But the memorial which attracted most attention, was 
" from upwards of three thousand ministers of the Gospel of all 
denominations and sects, in the different States of New Eng- 
land, remonstrating against the passage of the Nebraska Bill. 
Demagogues had aflfected indifference or contempt towards this 
petition ; and even Senators who were looking to the Presi- 
dency, allowed themselves, in the heat of debate, to treat 3,000 
New England clergymen with contempt. These Senators forgot, 
that these 8,000 ministers had been put into the pulpits of New 
England, by the 'peo^ple of New England ; just as really, legiti- 
mately (and without political corruption), as Senators at 
Washington had been placed in their seats. They should have 
remembered moreover, that these clergymen more faithfully 
reflected the opinions of their congregations, on this subject, 
than Senators represented the opinions of their constituents. 

It was expected, in this crisis, that Mr. Everett — who then 
filled Daniel Webster's place in the Senate — would, as a Massa- 
chusetts man, rise and rebuke the demagogues, for their 
unprovoked assault upon 3,000 of the Protestant clergymen of 
New England. But Mr. Everett was silent ; and Sam rose and 



294 HOUSTON ON THE CLERGYMEN'S PETITION. 

did the work which Webster would have done, had he not left 
the Senate and the world for ever. Mr. Houston said : — 



LY. 

Mr. President : I think that a petition of this kind ought to be received, 
and that it is not subject to the charge brought against it by the Senator 
from Illinois [Mr. Douglas]. It does not arraign our action by being 
drawn up after that action was had. The Nebraska Bill passed this body 
on the night of the 3d, or rather, on the morning of the 4th instant. The 
memorial appears to be dated on the 1st of March. I cannot think that it 
meant any indignity to the Senate. There is nothing expressive of any 
such feeling in it. It is a right that all individuals in the community 
have, if their terms are respectful, to memoralize the Senate of the 
United States upon any subject. AVhether there is any ulterior object in 
this I know not ; but from the date of the memorial, and from the number 
of signers, I am induced to believe that that memoralists thought there 
was something wrong in that bill ; and if they believe that its passage 
would be a breach of faith on the part of the Government, they had a 
right to say so. I took the liberty of making the same charge here. 
There were more questions than that of non-intervention involved in that 
bill. It involved an infraction of faith with the Indians, of pledges given 
to them under all the solemn forms, yet mockery, of treaties. That was 
one point involved ; and I charged that the passage of the bill would be a 
violation of plighted faith in that particular. Was it a violation of faith 
to disregard the Missouri Compromise, which was of so much aatiquity 
and utility to the country ? That is a matter of discussion. I have not 
arraigned the action of any gentleman since the passage of the bill, but 
anterior to it I gave my opinions in relation to its character as a disre- 
gard of treaties, and as a flagrant violation of the plighted faith of the 
nation towards the Indians. 



LYI. 

With respect to the Missouri Compromise, I believe its repeal to be as 
flao-rant a breach of faith as the violation of treaties made with the 
Indians. I have not charged Senators with corrupt motives, nor have I 



MINISTERS ARE NOT DISFRANCHISED. 295 

charged them with anything selfish ; but I certainly can see no more 
impropriety in ministers of the Gospel, in their vocation, memorializing 
Congress, than politicians, or other individuals. I do not believe that 
these ministers have sent this memorial here to manufacture political 
capital, to have it entered on tlie records of the Senate, so that it might 
be taken back and disseminated through the country. Sir, it comes from 
the country. I told you that there would be agitation ; but it was denied 
upon this floor. Is not this agitation ? Three thousand ministers of the 
living God upon earth — his vicegerents — send a memorial here upon this 
subject ; and yet you tell me that there is no excitement in the country ! 
Sir, you realize what I anticipated. The country has to bear the inflic- 
tion. Sir, the coup d'etat w&s not successful. The bill did not pass before 
the community was awakened to it. The community was awakened to it 
not alone in New England, for I have seen letters from the South and "West 
stating that it was there regarded as a breach of faith ; and I can see no 
wrong in ministers expressing their opinion in regard to it. This protest 
does not attack the reputation of Senators. It does not displace them 
from their positions here. It does not impair their capabilities for the 
discharge of the high functions which the Constitution has devolved upon 
them. I see nothing wrong in all this. 



LYII. 

Ministers have a right to remonstrate. They are like other men. Because 
they are ministers of the Gospel they are not disfranchised of political 
rights and privileges ; and, if their language is respectful to the Senate, 
in anticipation of the passage of a bill which is obnoxious to them, they 
have a right to spread their opinions on the records of the nation. The 
great national heart throbs under this measure ; its pulse beats high ; and 
is it surprising that we should observe the effects of it ? I trust, sir, that 
the nation may yet again see the blessed tranquillity that prevailed over 
the whole country when this " healing measure " was introduced into the 
Senate. The position of the nation was enviable. It was unagitated. 
There was not, in my recollection, a time so tranquil, nor a community 
more happy. A nation more proseperous existed not upon the earth. Sur, 
I trust that there will be no continuance of agitation ; but the way to end 
it is not to make war upon memorialists. Let them memorialize if they 
think it necessary. If they state what is incorrect, let the subject be 



296 PROPRIETY OF THE MEMORIAL. 

referred to committees, and let the committees give an exposition of the 
truth, and lay it, in reports, before the public, and then the intelligence 
of the nation will determine as to what is right, and what consideration 
ought to be given to it, I would not take away the liberty to indulge in 
the freest expression of opinion, or the exercise of the rights and privileges 
which belong to any portion of this country ; yet I would discourage agi- 
tation. I may hold the contents of this protest, to some extent, heretical ; 
yet they are not expressed in such offensive language as would justify a 
denial of their right to memorialize. If it had been intended to impugn 
our motives or our actions, either as corrupt or immoral, we could bear it. 
The people surely have a right to think and speak upon our action. We 
are not placed in a position so high that we are elevated above the ques- 
tioning power of the people. They have the right to look into our action, 
and investigate our conduct ; and, if they do not approve of it, to express 
their opinions in relation to it. I shall never make war upon them on 
that account ; yet, I trust, that whatever disposition may be made of the 
bill which we have passed, the agitation has already reached its acme ; 
and that, from this point it may decline, until the country is again restored 
to peace and happiness. 

LYIII. 

Mr. President, I have the misfortune to differ from my friends in relation 
to this measure, but that difference is not sufficient to induce me to enter 
anew into the discussion of it. I will, however, discuss the propriety of 
this memorial. The gentlemen misapprehend its character entirely. I 
understood the honorable Senator from Virginia — but I may have been 
mistaken — to say that it invoked the vengeance of the Almighty God upon 
the Senate. 

[Mr. MASON. In substance it does, as I understand.] 

Mr. HOUSTON. There is no invocation contained in the memorial. It is 
a respectful protest, stating their appreciation of the measure then pend- 
ing before the Senate of the United States, and not one word is contained 
in it derogatory to the Senate at the time it was drawn, and there is no 
invocation of wrath or vengeance upon the members of this body. It is a 
respectful protest, in the name of the Almighty God. 

By the expression which I used, that these ministers were the vice- 
gerents of the Almighty. I merely intended to say that they were harbin- 
gers of peace to their fellow-men ; and if it was a lapsus iinguce, or 



RELATION OF MINISTERS TO POLITICS. 29T 

improper expression, it docs not change the intention that I then enter- 
tained in my mind, of expressing a belief, that it was nothing else than an 
extraordinary emergency that diverted men from their ordinary pursuits 
in the ministry of the Gospel, to engage at all in, or to step even to the 
verge of, the political arena. 

LIX. 

We are told, Mr. President, that this was intended for the purpose of 
agitation. It is certainly a manifestation of agitation ; but it could not 
have been intended to create agitation, for the thing was done, and here 
is one of its developments and consequences. Yet, sir, I can see nothing 
wrong in the memorial, so far as I am concerned. If ministers of the 
Gospel are not recognized by the Constitution of the United States, they 
are recognized by the moral and social constitution of society. They are 
recognized in the constitution of man's salvation. The great Redeemer 
of the World enjoined duties upon mankind ; and there is a Moral Consti- 
tution from which we have derived all the excellent principles of our 
Political Constitution — the great principles upon which our Government, 
morally, socially, and religiously, is founded. 

LX. 

Sir, I do not think there is anything very derogatory to our institutions 
in the ministers of the Gospel expressing their opinions. They have a 
right to do it. No man can be a minister without first being a man. He 
has political rights : he has also the rights of a missionary of the Saviour, 
and he is not disfranchised by his vocation. Certain political restrictions 
may be laid upon him : he may be disqualified from serving in the Legis- 
latures of the States, but that does not discharge him from political and 
civil obligations to his country. He has a right to contribute as far as he 
thinks necessary, to the sustentation of its institutions. He has a right to 
interpose his voice as one of its citizens, against the adoption of any mea- 
sure which he believe will injure the nation. These individuals have done 
no more. They have not denounced the Senate, but they have protested, 
in the capacity of ministers, against what I and other Senators on this 
floor protested. They have the right to do it, and we cannot take that 
right from them. They will exercise it. The people have the right to 
think, and they will exercise that right. They have the right of memo- 

13* 



298 THE SOUTH AND THE COMPROMISE. 

rializing, and they will exercise that right. They have the right to express 
their opinions, and they will exercise that right. They will exercise their 
rights in reprobation or commendation at the ballot-box, too ; and preachers, 
I believe, vote. They have the right to do so. They are not very formida- 
ble numerically, but they have the right to do this as ministers of the 
Gospel, as well as we Senators have a right to vote for the adoption of a 
measure ; and if it is not in accordance with their opinions, they have a 
right to condemn it. They have the right to think it is morally wrong, 
politically wrong, civilly wrong, and socially wrong, if they do not inter- 
fere with the vested rights of others in the entertainment of those opinions. 

LXI. 

I understood my honorable friend from Mississippi to say, that the 
South had been groaning for a long time under this oppressive measure. 
The South, sir, are a spirited people, and how they could have submitted, 
for more than a third of a century, to this indignity, this wrong, this act 
of oppression, which has ground them down in their prosperity and deve- 
lopment, and never have said a word about it until this auspicious mo- 
ment arrived, and that, too, when political subjects have been agitated at 
the North and South — that it should have been reserved for the action of 
the present Congress, after all others had glided by without complaint, 
rebuke, remonstrance, or suggestion of appeal, is a most extraordinary 
thing. My friend does not apprehend it ; but there was no excitement 
out of this Capitol, or out of the city of Washington. It originated 
here. This was the grand laboratory of political action and political 
machinery. The object was to mature the measure here, and inflict it, by 
a coup d'etat, upon the nation, and then radiate it to every point of the 
country. The potion does not react pleasantly. There is a response, but 
how does it go down ? Not well. The physic works ; it works badly ; it 
works upward. 



LXII. 

I am willing to receive any memorials that are presented to this body 
which are respectable in terms, whether they come from preachers, poli- 
ticians, civilians, or from the beggars that congregate about your cities, 
and I will treat them with respect and kindness. As long as they are 
respectful in terms to this body, though they express their apprehension of 



REPLY TO MR. DOUGLAS. 299 

a calamity about to fall on the country, it brands no man ; and if they 
deuounce a measure in advance, it is what they have a right to do. We 
have a more eligible position here to advocate our opinions than individu- 
als have in social life to maintain their positions. We have all the pano- 
ply of power and State sovereignty thrown around the members of this 
body to guard and shield them against attacks ; but they are thrown in 
the midst of the community without any shield, except it is the shield of 
morality and propriety of conduct which gives protection to their persons. 
While they express themselves respectfully I shall never treat with dis- 
respect preachers, or any other individuals who come before this body to 
give us their opinions upon political subjects. 

LXIII. 

In reply to some remarks of Mr. Douglas — 

Mr. HOUSTON said : Mr. President, as the honorable Senator from Il- 
linois, the chairman of the Committee on Territories, seemed in a most 
emphatic manner to address his remarks to me, I think him fully entitled 
to the respect of my attention. He has dwelt upon the Abolition character 
of this document. So far as any such character may be embodied in it, I 
have nothing to say. There are various opinions entertained here and 
elsewhere upon various subjects with which I have nothing to do, and 
with which I have no affiliation ; but with this subject, as it is presented 
to the Senate now, I have some connection. With the controversy 
which exists between the honorable chairman of the Committee on 
Territories and the gentleman from_ Ohio (Mr. Chase), and the gentle- 
man from ^lassachusetts, (Mr. Sumner), I have nothing to do. I was not 
here when the controversy originated, nor when it was first introduced 
into the Senate. I have not participated in it since ; and however un- 
pleasant such altercations or controversies may be, and however I may 
regard them as impeding the transaction of business in this body, I have 
forborne either public or private expressions of opinion upon that matter. 

Mr. DOUGLAS. Mr. President, I will say to the Senator that the only 
allusion which I had to him was the simple quotation which I made from 
his remarks when he spoke of these ministers being the vicegerents of the 
Almighty. My other remarks were intended for another quarter, so far 
as they had an application anywhere. If he is under the misapprehension 
of supposing that they referred to him, I wish to correct him ; that is all. 
I do not want to interrupt him. 



300 THE MEMORIAL MISAPPREHENDED. 

LXIY. 

Mr. HOUSTON. I am very glad to hear the disclaimer, for the gen- 
tlemau'S remarks apjDeared to be directed so unequivocally towards me, 
that I was led into the misapprehension of supposing that they were 
intended perhaps to apply to me, in a manner in which it was not the 
purpose of the gentleman to apply them. But, sir, I explained, when I 
was up before, the misapplication of the term 'vicegerent,' and I 
expressed my opinion to be that the ministers of the Gospel were the her- 
alds of the Almighty God, or his ministers of peace upon earth. I thought 
the gentleman would not have carped upon that expression, unless with 
reference to some particular influence which my views might have upon 
the auditory. It was a mere misapplication of a term, and I so explained it. 
But, Mr. President, I think the object of this memorial is misappre- 
hended. I find no fault with its introduction either before or after the 
passage of the bill to which it refers, for that bill may be returned to the 
Senate with amendments. Such things very frequently occur. At all 
events, as the memorial has been prepared with great care, and as the 
gentlemen who have signed it have been anxiotis that their views should 
be laid before the Senate of the United States, lest other measures 
embracing similar principles should be introduced, I can see nothing 
improper in allowing them to lay their views respectfully before the 
Senate. I do not think there is any evidence that the gentlemen who 
have signed the memorial have any disposition to establish theocracy in 
our country, or that they wish to take the Government into their own 
hands, and exercise a controlling influence over it. We find that those 
who have signed this document are of diflerent sects and various denom- 
inations. I think there is no danger that such an amalgamation of 
interests and opinions will take place as to embody a force suflScient 
to make any great impression on the institutions of this country, or to 
endanger our Hbertios. 

LXY. 

Mr. President, this memorial is regarded as a substantive and indepen- 
dent matter, as intended to produce agitation, and to insult the Senate ; 
but it is really the efiect of a measure which 1 predicted would have this 
influence upon the community. The cause exists in the Senate. It exists 
in the amendment inserted into the Nebraska Bill proposing the repeal of 



THE PRINCIPLES OF SELF-GOVERNMENT. 301 

the Missouri Compromise, and this is but responsive action to that. The 
cause is not in the clergymen who have signed this memorial. The 
memorial is the effect of a cause brought forward and presented in the 
Senate. The memorial impugns the action of no one. It is true the 
memorialists speak of the measure as immoral. Surely that ought not to 
insult Senators. They are not such paragons of morality that they 
cannot bear to have their moral character questioned, if they should 
happen to do anything which would not be strictly moral, according to 
some standards, but which I should not think to be very immoral. But is 
their morality of such a delicate texture as to be affected by a memorial 
coming from " the land of steady habits ? 

LXYI. 

We are told that there is a great principle involved in the bill to 
which this memorial refers. This is a very formidable and very visible 
response to that great principle which it is said has lain dormant. 
Sir, I need not name the number of years that it has lain dormant. No 
bright genius ever elicited it ; no brilliant conception ever discovered it 
until this session had progressed for some time, when the great principle 
of non-intervention at once sprang up to illumine the world, to be 
regarded as one which, at some future day, would be a universally- 
recognized principle. Sir, I recognize the principles of self-government, 
but I do it in sovereignty. A people in tutelage cannot exercise 
sovereignty, but States c^. A people who are in a territorial existence, 
which is fitting them to become States, exercise what may be called a 
quasi sovereignty. They are never really sovereign until they are 
recognized by Congress as such, and are received into the Union as 
sovereign States. Then is the time for the operation of self-government, but 
it grows out of sovereignty. Is it to be in five squatters? They may pass 
a law to-day and repeal it to-morrow, and the next day they may pass 
another law, and so on successively from day to day, and from year to 
year, they may pass and repeal laws. The Territories have no power to 
pass organic laws until the attributes of sovereignty are about to attach, 
or have actually attached to them. That is what I call non-intervention. 
That is what I call sovereignty and self-government. This is the great 
principle which it is said is involved in the bill which we have passed ; 
and now we are receiving the response to it. I hope we may never have 
any more responses of this description. I pray Heaven that we may 



302 EFFECTS OF HOUSTON'S SPEECH. 

never have another such protest iu this body. I pray that there may 
never exist uny necessity for it. But for the necessity or cause, which 
originated in this body, this memorial would never have been laid upon 
your table. This is but the effect ; the cause was anterior to it. If we 
wish to avert calamitous effects, we should prevent pernicious causes. 

LXYII. 

This calm and noble appeal, to the just judgment of the high 
Tribunal which heard it was impotent there. But it was heard 
and cherished by many thousand hearts among the hills and 
valleys of New England. The Protestant Clergy of the United 
States, are the best exponents of the enlightened moral feeling 
of the American People. From the foundation of the country, 
they have been the enemies of a union of Church and State. 
They have always been foremost in the cause of civil and Reli- 
gious Liberty. They have — as a class — abstained from an 
improper interference in public affairs. They have shown even 
too much delicacy in this regard. If they had been bolder, and 
rebuked Demagogism in all its forms, we should not have 
witnessed what we have now seen. — politicians of Protestant 
origin, bowing to court the vote of ignorant, bigoted paupers, 
who in consequence of the laxity of our Naturalization Laws, 
are allowed to vote in masses almost as soon as they land on 
our shores, and before they understand even our language — 
much less our system of Government. No reply was made to 
this able speech of Houston on the Right of Petition — and 
none could be. 



LXYIII. 

It is refreshing, in the midst of modern political competition, 
to hear such a tribute to unostentatious virtue and patriotism. 
If we turn back in the Records of Congress, we shall find that 



SENATOR BENTON EULOGIZES HOUSTON. 303 

in 1836, not long after the Battle of San Jacinto, Hon. Thos. 
H. Benton thus spoke of Houston in his place in the United 
States Senate : — 

" Of the individuals who have purchased lasting renown in this 
young war, it would be impossible, in this place, to speak in 
detail, and invidious to discriminate. But there is one among 
them, whose position forms an exception ; and whose early 
association with myself, justifies and claims the tribute of a 
particular notice. I speak of him whose romantic victory has 
given to the Jacinto* that immortality in grave and serious 
history, which the diskos of Apollo had given to it in the fabu- 
lous pages of the heathen Mythology. General Houston was 
born in the State of Virginia, County of Rockbridge : he was 
appointed an ensign in the army of the United States, during 
the late war with Great Britain, and served in the Creek 
campaign under the banners of Jackson. I was the lieutenant 
colonel of the regiment to which he belonged, and the first field 
officer to whom he reported. I then marked in him the same 
soldierly and gentlemanly qualities which have since distinguish- 
ed his eventful career : frank, generous, brave ; ready to do, or 
to suffer, whatever the obligations of civil or military duty im- 
posed ; and always prompt to answer the call of honor, patriot- 
ism, and friendship. Sincerely do I rejoice in his victory. It is 
a victory without alloy, and without parallel, except at New 
Orleans. It is a victory which the civilization of the age, and 
the honor of the human race, required him to gain : for the nine- 
teenth century is not an age in which a repetition of the Goliad 
matins could be endured. Nobly has he answered the requisi- 
tion ; fresh and luxuriant are the laurels which adorn his brow. 

"It is not within the scope of my present purpose, to speak 
of military events, and to celebrate the exploits of that vanguard 

* Hyacinth ; hyacinthus ; huakinthus ; water flower. 



304 Houston's bravery and generosity. 

of the Anglo-Saxons who are now on the confines of the ancient 
empire of Montezuma ; but that combat of San Jacinto I it 
must for ever remain in the catalogue of military miracles. 
Seven hundred and fifty citizens, miscellaneously armed with 
rifles, muskets, belt pistols, and knives, under a leader who had 
never seen service, except as a subaltern, march to attack near 
double their numbers — march in open day across a clear prairie, 
to attack upwards of twelve hundred veterans, the elite of an 
invading army of seven thousand, posted in a wood, their flanks 
secured, front intrenched ; and commanded by a general trained 
in civil wars ; victorious in numberless battles ; and chief of an 
empire of which no man becomes chief except as conqueror. In 
twenty minutes the position is forced. The combat becomes a 
carnage* The flowery prairie is stained with blood ; the 
hyacinth is no longer blue, but scarlet. Six hundred Mexicans 
are dead ; six hundred more are prisoners, half wounded, the 
President General himself is a prisoner ; the camp and baggage 
all taken ; and the loss of the victors, six killed and twenty 
wounded. Such are the results, and which no European can 
believe, but those who saw Jackson at New Orleans. Hous- 
ton is the pupil of Jackson ; and he is the first self-made-general, 
since the time of Mark Antony, and the King Antigonus, who 
has taken the general of the army and the head of the govern- 
ment captive in battle. Different from Antony, he has spared 
the life of his captive though forfeited by every law, human and 
divine." 



ELEMENTS OF STATESMANSHIP. 305 



SECTION SIXTEENTH. 

Houston's statesmanship. 

I. 

An estimate of the qualities which distinguish Houston as a 
Statesman, must place his character in an elevated and bril- 
liant light. Many men are good soldiers, but add not to skill 
in the arts of war, the graces of judgment which make valuable 
and trustworthy legislators. It is no man of ordinary gifts who 
combines in himself the warrior of renown, and the profound 
lawgiver, and the just civilian. Wellington, the hero of Water- 
loo, was one of the modern heroes of this stamp, though falling 
far behind our own Washington in the prudence of his counsels, 
and in his clear foresight of the probable effects of causes set in 
motion. The latter was devoted to broad principles of right and 
justice, and had no artificial forms of power, or barriers for 
privileged classes to consolidate or to protect. The former was 
always busy in wresting principles from the inevitable conflict 
with the machinery of the British government — which, however 
wonderful in its construction, must ever be subject to modifica- 
tions suited to that enlarged freedom, the growth of which has 
been steadily increasing since Milton — Cromwell's great Secreta- 
ry of State — and the mighty master of Protestant republicanism, 
poured forth his great anthems of thought at the consecration 
of human liberty. 



306 FIRMNESS OF POLITICAL PURPOSE. 

II. 

Houston's career as a statesman, has been briefly sketched in 
the preceding pages ; but the analysis of his qualities as a ruler 
and as a legislator, will distinguish him more and more, the closer 
the microscope reveals the motives of his conduct through the 
trying and stormy period that he presided over the destinies 
of Texas. The world will not readily forget, and will be more 
ready to admire, the man who, at the peril of popularity, and 
even of life itself, dared to stand between the lawless elements 
of passion and the fixed code of his race, and stay the former 
from being swept upon by a flood of dangerous experiments, 
which would have resulted in multifarious embarrassments for 
the country, or hurried it on to the verge of ruin, or plunged 
it into a chaos. 

III. 

The numerous instances in which Houston exercised the veto 
power, however much they may have subjected him, during the 
Texas Presidency, to the temporary censure of the politicians of 
the hour, will be remembered in the future as the substantial 
evidences of lofty, manly courage, elevated and sincere patriot- 
ism, and of uncommon political sagacity and foresight. The 
original veto of Andrew Jackson was one of the monuments of 
that illustrious man's political fame — but in the scores of in- 
stances in which Houston exercised a similar prerogative, the 
builders of new republics will read a series of lessons in the sub- 
lime principles of law, which will sink deep into the heart of the 
political philosopher, while the spirit of them will be felt and 
enforced, in that silent embodiment of action, with which political 
virtue noiselessly erects the homes of men, for the happiness 
of the human family. To be a popular ruler, regardless of the 



^PUBLIC DETRACTION. 301 

ultimate effects to a people or to mankind, is not a difficult task 
— but to be so well acquainted with the history of nations, and 
with those interior powers of legislative enactments, as intuitive- 
ly to feel " the future in the instant," and to foresee the long 
train of unhappy consequences which would spring from a 
disruption of the laws of probity and right, while the moral 
force and the noble courage are equal and ready to check the 
impetuosity of political passion, and the hasty impulses of 
suddenly acquired power — is the gift of few men in these days 
of intrigue and corruption. 

ly. 

Houston was a brave man — brave in a moral as well as a 
physical sense. Early in the month of June, 1831, there were 
public journals in New York, in Richmond, and at Washington, 
which did not hesitate to propel the slander, that this bold 
soldier, and braver governor, had played the part of a coward, 
and retreated before the Mexicans, till he was compelled to 
fight I Such is public detraction ! 



Y. 

That Houston should be branded as a coward, by the enemies 
of Andrew Jackson, was nut stranger than that Jackson was 
branded as a coward, even in the same breath that would have 
consigned the man of San Jacinto to infamy. History, how- 
ever, when it speaks of battle-fields, will not hesitate to avow 
who it was that, with a handful of troops, gave battle to Santa 
Anna on the 21st of April, 1836, and brought the Mexican 
President and his suite the next day captives into the camp of 
the Forlorn Hope. But history will not require to cite this 
physical triumph as a proof of the courage of a noble nature. 



308 HEROISM OF MIND. 

The knowledge men possess of the human heart will never let 
them find a cranny in the imagination, where the breath of 
suspicion can sough against the bravery of Houston, He who 
stood by Texas in her hour of attempt — in her day of triumph 
— and in her night of starless gloom and pitch darkness, when 
even her own star seemed to be seeking its last fate — a Pleiad 
among nations — who breasted every danger, and, single and 
alone, stood forth an embodiment of personal, political, and 
moral courage, while the popular will muttered and rebuked, 
and the midnight assassin would have murdered Texas through 
its President, but that the form of the modern pioneer of 
republics, moving calmly before the open window of his own 
delightful home, awed the abashed malcontent into impotency — 
he it is, that History will never have occasion to defend from 
the attack of any reputable man, on the charge of cowardice. 
The President of Texas, who accomplished all that has been 
cited in these pages, is not one whose name can be tarnished by 
the breath of captious or ignorant slanderers. If ever a states- 
man, in the annals of modern governments, has earned the 
regard of men, or the gratitude of nations, for self-sacrificing 
heroism of the mind, surely Houston may claim the highest 
meed of honor in this respect. Without indulging the spirit of 
a dictator, his deliberations were crowned by wisdom, and he 
shrank not from the conscientious discharge of his duties to the 
State, rather than to gain the temporary applause of those, 
who, inflamed more by the successes of a popular leader, than 
animated by carefully weighed principles of patriotism and 
public policy, were zealous without wisdom, and powerful 
without judgment. 

YI. 

It is deeply interesting to contemplate the opinions of 
Houston's statesmanship which were entertained by those who 



JACKSON 'S FEELINGS TOWARDS HOUSTON. 809 

knew the man best, at that moment, when the whole of the 
United States, and of Texas, was excited by the news of Texan 
success against the arts and arms of Mexico. Notwithstanding, 
there were calumnious reports in circulation, on the arrival of 
General Houston at New Orleans, after the battle of San 
Jacinto, attributing his departure from Texas to a quarrel with 
the civil authorities of the infant Republic, yet there were 
capable minds watchful of the history of that period, and hope- 
ful for the future of Texas, and its distinguished hero. 



YII. 

The fact that Andrew Jackson was the friend of Houston 
was well known everywhere throughout the land — but the deep 
personal interest that he took in Houston's career was not so 
publicly known. It can well be imagined how painful to him 
must have been the series of attacks on Houston's character, 
which were made in 1836, not so much for any effect that they 
may have been intended to accomplish on Houston's destiny, as 
on the mind of the friend of the hero of San Jacinto. It is 
well known that President Jackson viewed these attacks with 
indignation and abhorrence. 

VIII. 

The libels upon the character of General Houston's states- 
manship, were scattered broadcast over the United States. The 
most influential presses opposed to President Jackson's adminis- 
tration, were active in sowing the seeds of discontent and slan- 
der, and in preparing the public mind to oppose the introduction 
of Texns into the Union — a measure which, had it been success- 
ful, would have produced untold trouble for our country, and 
have weakened its borders beyond the power of man to estimate. 



310 Jackson's opinion of Houston. 

Although these slanders were eventually eaten by those who had 
planted and cultivated them, yet they were not without their 
temporary effect upon the public mind, ever ready to catch the 
speediest solution to any problem, the character of which is not 
fully comprehended. 



IX. 

Among the efforts made to repel the slanders upon General 
Houston's fair fame, was one so marked and important that it 
carried uncommon weight to every candid judgment. Though 
it was not penned by President Andrew Jackson himself, it is 
reasonable to assert that it was published either at his sugges- 
tion, or under his own immediate sanction, — the allusion to Jack- 
son himself being only made by the writer from prudential 
motives. It appeared, immediately after the cruel statements 
and insinuations which were made against General Houston by 
the opposition press, in the editorial columns of the official organ 
of the Administration. 



After stating the nature of the hbels published against 
General Houston, the vindication proceeds in the annexed lan- 
guage : " We sincerely hope that General Houston's future 
conduct as the first man in 7'exas, may correspond with the wis- 
dom and vigor, and patriotism of the past. If he follows the 
disinterested, honest, unambitious course, which distinguished 
the great men of the State in which he was born (Virginia), or 
that of the great man under whose auspices he became first dis- 
tinguished himself, he icill leave a noble name behind him. If he 
fulfills in good faith the will of the people of Texas, without 
thinking of Sam Houston — if he contributes to raise a free 
government, and to secure its stability by all the means he can 



Houston's American character. 311 

command, unswerved by the lust of power or wealth, or the 
poor vanity of strutting about in the ostentation which once 
made up the happiness of the men he has vanquished — then his 
name will go down to future ages with those of the benefactors of 
this continent, who have considered true glory to consist iu 
building up free and safe institutions." 



XL 

Such laugaage as this is seldom or never applied to a common 
mind. Had Houston written it in his " heart of hearts," and 
conned it unceasingly, he could not have lived up to its pre- 
cepts more completely and thoroughly than he has done. In no 
single point has his character travelled out of this record for his 
government as a statesman. In the history of his public career 
in Texas, as has been seen, there is nothing to be pointed at 
which is derogatory to the proud name thus promised. By those 
who have weighed, or who will weigh, the public services of the 
man, in rescuing a vast territory from tyranuy, for future bless- 
ings to the innumerable sons of liberty, his character as a states- 
man must stand second to none who are now living in the lustre 
of their laurels. 



XII. 

It is not alone, however, to the thoughts and acts which dis- 
tinguished Houston in Texas as a statesman that the historian 
is obliged to refer. The councils of the Confederacy have been 
made illustrious by his practical good sense, by his prompt and 
determined action, by his sincerity of purpose, by his frank 
avowal of opinion, and by an enlarged and liberal American 
feeling, earnest for the welfare of every man worthy of bearing 
the American name. Xo sectional prejudice has blinded his 



312 THE MAGIC POWER OF STATESMANSHIP. 

mental perceptions. The fountains of Eternal Justice are the 
sources whence such men derive inspiration and safety. With 
no personal ends to gain— with a strong love of country— with 
patient toil for the right, and its gradual rescue from the jaws 
of error — his public deliberations have rebuked lawless power, 
and have been always devoted to the " greatest happiness of 
the greatest number." 



XIII. 

Before concluding this section, let us glance at the character 
of Houston's statesmanship, as displayed in the general policy 
of his government of Texas, during the terms of his oflace— 
filled, as has been seen, to the full measure and limit permitted 
by the Constitution of that State. On being inducted to his 
place of trust and power, the affairs of the government were in 
the utmost confusion. Public credit was at a low ebb, and 
something of the distressing experiences of a Washington 
seemed necessary to nerve a man to meet the terrible troubles 
of that period. Houston did not flinch from his task. An 
honest and a brave man knows no fear. With him all possible 
things are probable. In this spirit, Houston examined every 
department of the State, with a view to reform. History will 
never do justice to his labors in this field of inquiry. The very 
founder of the Republic had seen it tortured and twisted into 
every shape that expediency could suggest, to give it a tempo- 
rary existence— but in the eyes of nations, and of men, it was a 
dead Republic. He looked upon it, however, not with dismay, 
or alarm. The warm glow of sympathy animated his bosom— 
the stricken child of men's hearts and hopes was before him, 
prostrate— and, with a will, exalted till it awakened all his 
energies, and vitalized every fibre of his being, he breathed upon 
empire, and bade it •' Arise ! " Texas started to its feet, in all 



TEXAS IN HER PROSTRATION. 313 

the glow of youthful beauty and vigor. She took her place in 
the midst of nations. Millions looked upon her with earnest eyes 
and hopeful hearts. Monarchs stood ready to pay her homage, 
as one of the dauo^hters of the earth. 



XIV. 

What produced this reaction — this resurrection from the deep 
sleep of death ? It was the policy of Houston — that policy 
which was based upon broad principles of honor and of justice. 
" Honesty is the best policy " for nations as well as for men, and 
this was the grand basis for his action, after being made President 
of Texas. Under his enlightened administration all that was 
weak, and subject to distrust and contumely, was made strong, 
and commanded the attention of men. It was not a policy of 
expediencies, but it was one that held the pledged faith of the 
nation to be a sacred thing — whether that pledged faith had 
been given in so many words of congressional resolution, or 
under the tacit recognition of the comity of civilized nations. 
Conduct of this kind could not fail to secure public respect for 
Texas — and eventually his administration showed how much 
better he had calculated in behalf of his country, than all other 
men who had endeavored to sustain her in the days of her 
infancy and weakness. 

XY. 

In his policy, Houston was simple, and, therefore, he was 
effective. He may be esteemed the only primitive statesman of 
our day. Contrasted with the Founders of States and Empires, 
his name shines with no diminished lustre. Like William Penn 
and Captain John Smith, he went into the wilderness as one of 
the great pioneers of civilization. He saw an empire in the 

14 



314 HOUSTON A PRIMITIVE MAN. 

solitude, and he dashed through the tangled way, till he brought 
it out into the full blaze of day, for the admiration and enjoy- 
ment of mankind. It was no mean, grovelling policy that 
accomphshed all this. It was the poHcy of the Christian soldier 
— the policy of a man understanding the great universal springs 
of human affection and confidence — which no diplomacy, how- 
ever cunningly devised, can rival, and which alone can prove 
successful in the best sense of that terra. Penn in Pennsylvania, 
and Smith in Yirginia, and Miles Standish, in the colony of 
Massachusetts Bay, at an earlier period, accomplished, by similar 
means, precisely what Houston effected on the wilds of our 
southern frontiers, even though assisted by a less orderly set of 
comrades than distinguished the bold pioneers of this conti- 
nent. 



XYI. 

We have said Houston was a primitive man. In his temper 
and spirit, as well as in his policy, this is true. There is no 
place on the face of the earth where the mind of a man, who has 
a will to that end, can expand and ripen into value and power 
more rapidly than in the wilderness, or on the extreme borders 
of civilization. Houston had the advantage of an education of 
self-culture in the solitudes of the Southwest. Here, it is 
evident to us, he gratified himself not solely with the contem- 
plation of the ways of men, but with the mysterious yet certaia 
workings of that inscrutable Providence that overrules alike the 
fall of a sparrow and the fall of nations. From the Sacred 
Volume he appears to have drawn largely those precepts of 
good-will to men, and those ancient maxims of charity, which, 
above all others, grace the scholar, the soldier, and the civilian. 
There is a distrust in many minds of their fitness for a public 
profession of faith in that hope which all Christians find to be a 



GOD IN HISTORY. 315 

consolation in their last moments, and it may be that on this 
very account Houston did not associate himself with any deno- 
mination of Christians at an early period. Yet the man of 
piety and of humanity was seen in the enlarged Christian 
charities which he exhibited from the first moment of his 
distinction. His generosity to Santa Anna — his protection to 
his Mexican captive, when threatened with assassination, even 
at the peril of his own person and popularity — show that 
he was animated by Christian precepts, not less than by a 
determination to save Texas from the unfading infamy which 
would have gathered over her name had this vacillating Mexican 
perished by the hands of an enraged soldiery while he was a 
prisoner of war. • 

XYII. 

The dispatch, dated at Head Quarters of the Army, San 
Jacinto, April 25th, 1836 — a model of style in its modest 
■expression after a great victory — is concluded by General 
Houston in these significant words, which follow his tributes of 
praise to those who shared with himself the glory of the action : 
" Nor should we withhold the tribute of our grateful thanks from 
that Being who rides the destinies of nations, and has, in the time 
of greatest need, enabled us to arrest a powerful invader, whilst 
devastating our country." The intelligent reader will not fail 
•to notice that the whole success of the most brilliant capture on 
the field of recent warfare, is unhesitatingly ascribed to the 
agency of that Divine Power that guides men by laws as certain 
to promote His will, as they are unseen and uncomprehended by 
His erring children ; who, nevertheless, as their studies increase, 
will never fail to recognize God in history. 

XYIII. 

Of the statesmanship of Houston we may, then, say with 



316 THE SACRED FORM OF JUSTICE. 

truth, and with the concurrent assent of mankind, that the rapid 
progress of Texas, until its admission into our National Con- 
federacy, is his most enduring and noble monument. The 
progress of time will only increase the curiosity of men to know 
the means by which order was eliminated out of chaos, while 
the examination of the policy of this statesman will lend renewed 
brilliancy to his name as an able expounder of the great 
principles of law, a thorough student in the history of men and 
empires, a just and noble governor, and every way fitted to 
hold the highest position in the gift of a people, especially in 
periods of storm and turbulence. Men who desire to rule, with 
the sacred form of justice ever enshrined in the sanctuary of their 
hearts, are seldom raised to power, but such men are too 
valuable to the cause of freedom and humanity to be overlooked, 
when it is necessary to meet an important crisis. 



WRONGS TO THE INDIANS. 31t 



SECTION SEVENTEENTH. 

HOUSTON AND THE INDIANS. 
I. 

In new countries the standard of commercial morality is 
always low. Indeed, it may be said, there is no such thing, 
except as it is defined by the public statutes. There are in our 
Atlantic cities large buildings, erected by millionaires, from the 
marble and granite drawn from the original hunting-grounds of 
the North American Indians, every block of which has been 
cemented with the Red Man's blood. For many years the 
butchery of the Indian was considered scarcely more criminal 
than the slaughter of the wild buffalo — and great companies of 
traders went to the far West, and with impunity, fortified by 
the general negligence on the subject, sacrificed at the altar of 
Mammon, thousands of noble hearts. This history of slaugh- 
ters, innumerable and disgraceful, has not been published, 
though it has more than once been written. Fire-water has not 
been the sole exterminator of the Red Man. His bones have 
whitened on the plains, the prairies, and the hills, as he has been 
sliot down by the unerring rifle of the trapper and hunter, act- 
ing under the authority of men of commercial enterprise. 

II. 

Philanthropy and justice shrink from the recital of those tra- 
ditions, which tell the story of the Red Man's wrongs and the 



318 GROWING SYMPATHY FOR THE RED MEN. 

White Man's perfidy. Happily, however, within the last 
thirty years, a new and more generous feeling in favor of the 
Indian and his rights has dignified the public mind. The daily 
massacre of Indians is at an end — and minds, sympathizing with 
the first owners of the soil, have exerted their eloquence in favor 
of the Aborigines. This better state of public feeling has had 
its effect even on the frontiers, for the morality of true civiliza- 
tion, like the sun's beams, sheds its . genial light wherever it has 
once been felt, to bless and to invigorate. As the Indian cha- 
racter has been more and more studied, there has been a more 
enlightened ajDpreciation of the condition and desires of the 
native tribes. The government has been paternal from the 
first, and has done much to atone for injuries, and to smooth 
the path of the Red Man's apprehended annihilation — but much 
more might have been done by our government, had its agents 
been men of noble character — of the army, for instance — 
instead of scheming traders, not sensitively alive to those high 
principles of duty which should incite all men clothed with 
power by the government. The hundred millions of dollars 
appropriated by Congress for the benefit of the Indian tribes, at 
various times, have been diverted from their true destination 
and purpose, and squandered, while the condition of the Red 
Man has been deteriorated rather than improved by the gene- 
rosity or justice of the country, thus expressed in its bounties. 
This has been caused by the mode of distribution, which has 
been a careless, if not criminal negligence, and has proved more 
beneficial to speculators than to those whom it was intended to 
benefit. 

III. 

Evils of this kind have long been subjects of indignant 
remonstrance and discussion, and on the frontier are many noble 
men who know and love the Indian, who have partaken of his 



THE DEFENDER OF THE INDIANS. 319 

rude hospitality, or who have married in his wigwam, who raise 
the despairing cry for justice in the future. No men more 
thoroughly understand this subject in all its details — no men 
are more conversant with the wTongs endured by our Indian 
tribes than those spirits, who, from love of adventure, or to gra- 
tify their own tastes, have penetrated beyond the borders of 
civilization, and made their abiding-place with the children of 
nature. Houston was one of these. The story of his exit 
from the pleasures and amenities of civilization into the wilds 
of nature's wide domain has been told. He there learned to 
sympathize with the Indian, and to feel with him, because he 
knew his situation in the day of his decadence from power. In 
this way he became his defender. That hearty love of justice 
and mercy which so ennobles man, and which has marked his 
every step, could not shut the Indian out from his exertions and 
his hopes. 

IJ. 

Accordingly, we find him second to no one, in the Xational 
Congress, in watching with lynx-eyed vigilance the cause of the 
Indians. While he would protect them from imposition, he 
would have no community imposed upon by them. It is 
averred that Indians, through Mexico, are now sold to Cuba as 
slaves. Time will decide if this allegation be true. If it is, 
surely every good man will desire that so atrocious a system 
should be terminated at once. 



Y. 

The views of Houston with respect to the Indians, though 
somewhat mingled with opinions upon other topic, are to be 
found in what he said in the Senate of the United States, on 
the last day of 1854. They are all-important at this period of 



320 Houston's view of the Indians. 

our survey of- his life and character, and we should look to the 
public report of his speech on tliat occasion. Though many 
more brilliant speeches have fallen from his lips on the subject 
of Indian rights, and the necessity of being true to our Indian 
treaties, yet in the subjoined frank and noble avowal of opinions, 
all men will learn to honor the man, even more than the orator. 



VI. 

Mr, HOUSTON — Mr. President, I hardly know what to say in reply to 
the senator from Iowa, for I hardly know what to think of his speech. 
(Laughter.) If I were to characterize his remarks in any way, I should 
say that they were, at least, very remarkable. In the first place, let me 
say to that honorable senator, and to the honorable senator from Florida, 
that they were talking about things of which I knew very little, for I was 
not in the United States when the occurrences to which they alluded took 
place, and I was not, therefore, familiar with the history of those wars. 
If I am not mistaken, however, it was an outrage of a very delicate 
character which brought on, the Florida war. 

Mr. MALLORY— That is a mistake, sir. 



YII. 

Mr. HOUSTON— Well, sir that was the report which was brought to 
Texas. Whether it was true or not, I do not know ; but that was the 
information which I received from people from that section of the country. 
As for the Black Hawk war, I know little or nothing about it ; for, in 
Texas at that time, we had no mail communication with the United States, 
and we got but few papers from the States, so that I remained uninformed 
in relation to those matters ; but, no doubt, they were very exciting. The 
senator from Iowa said the Black Hawk war was broug-ht on by a council 
of the nation ; but I have heard that an examination of the circumstan- 
ces will show that the first outrage was committed by an individual, not 
by the concurrence of the nation, though they afterwards became involved 
in the general war. In that statement, I believe, I am sustained by the 
history of the times. 



SHALL THE INDIANS BE EXTERMINATED? 321 

VIII. 

I have already stated that occasions occur where outlaws among the 
Indians commit acts of aggression on the whites, and the whites imme- 
diately retaliate on the Indian nations, and these nations, in self-defence, 
become involved in war 5 but I never knew a case where a treaty, which 
was made and carried out in good faith, was violated by the Indians. 
In Florida the Indians complained that they had been deceived in the 
treaty, and that the boundaries assigned were not as they understood 
them ; and they killed their own chiefs. It was charged that some of the 
agents were involved in speculations to a great extent dependent on the 
treaty. I recollect it was so stated at the time. 



IX. 

I think, sir, the senator's speech was of a remarkable character in rela- 
tion to politics and other matters, which I am sorry that he has intro- 
duced. He has undertaken to admonish me, and for this admonition I 
am much obliged to him. His experience, his superior opportunities, may 
entitle him, in the opinion of others, to the right of admonishing me ; 
and I am perfectly willing, on that point, to yield my own opinion to 
what may be the general impression of the body. I did not provoke his 
remark by any allusion to any one, predicated upon my own disposition 
to arraign the conduct of others ; nor have I asserted anything in regard 
to the officers of the army, but what are matters of fact, taken from the 
official documents. When I made suggestions of a speculative character, 
I gave them as such. 

X. 

But, Mr. President, the senator from Iowa has said that he would not 
have been astonished if the rankest abolitionist had made such a speech, 
and had avowed such sentiments as I did. He says that, if a man in western 
New York had presented such views, he would not have been surprised. 
Now, I wish to know what connection my remarks had with abolition ? 
What connection they had with any one in western New York ? In what 
respect have I catered to any prejudice or morbid sensibility ? I have 
stood here alone in this body, against a powerful array of talent and 

14* 



322 NO SOCIETIES FOR THE INDIANS. 

influence, contending for what I conceived to be a great principle, and 
which must obtain, or the Indian race be exterminated. 



XI. 

In regard to that principle, I have the concurrence of the senator from 
Tennessee (Mr. Bell), who was once Secretary of War, and, as such, had 
control of the Indian Department, and who has, since that period, been a 
prominent member of the Committee on Indian Affairs of the Senate. I 
believe that my opinions are also concurred in by the senator from Arkan- 
sas (Mr. Sebastian), who is the head of the Committee on Indian Affairs. 
I can inform the senator from Iowa that I will sustain him to the extent 
of my humble abilities in any measure he may introduce i-n favor of the 
Indians, and for the establishment of a policy which will ultimately benefit 
them, and reflect credit upon the government of the United States. 



XII. 

I have not been regardless of what I considered the honor of the United 
States, and the interest of the Indians. In no instance have I been remiss 
in these particulars. I could not cater to any passion or prejudice on this 
subject, because I know of no societies in the JVorth, or in the South, or 
in any section of this Union, for the advanceinent of the civilization 
of the Indians. If such societies exist, lam not in correspondence with 
them, nor am I aware of the existence of any such associations. Then, 
for what ulterior purposes could I advocate the rights of the Indians, or 
invoke the justice of this government towards them ? Could it be any 
expectation of political benefits? None upon earth. 



XIII. 

I presume the abolitionists are perfectly absorbed in the subject of abo- 
lition. For myself, I would rather see them turn their attention to the 
amelioration of the condition of the Indians on our western wilds, or to 
the reclamation of those whom they hold in slavery. There are not less 
than two thousand prisoners in the hands of the Camanches ; four hundred 
in one band, in my own State. The prisoners can be reclaimed from those 



Houston's boyhood. 323 

Indians, wlio are coming down to settle upon their reservations. They 
take no prisoners but women and boys. The boys they treat with a degree 
of barbarity unprecedented ; and their cruelties towards the females are 
nameless and atrocious. Our government is silent in relation to them. 
Has humanity no claims upon us in this respect? Has justice no demand 
unanswered ? 

xiy. 

Sir, we have not seen the facts to which I have just alluded impressed 
on a page of our official communications from the War Department. The 
officers stationed near the places where those transactions have taken 
place have not reported them. No effort has been made to obtain appro- 
priations for the reclamation and redemption of those prisoners. This is 
a subject which calls aloud for the humane influence of the senator. There 
is no sickly sentimentality in this, but a manly upheaving of soul, that, 
in consideration of suffering humanity, demands that the government 
shall rescue them from the most cruel and um'elenting bondage. 



XY. 

I have been accused of catering to a morbid, sickly sentimentality. 
Sir, I never yielded anything of my own conscientious convictions to 
consult the opinions of others. I never stooped to solicit office ; but I 
have received and accepted it to my own disadvantage. I might have 
hated the Indians, if I had a soul no bigger than a shell-bark. 
[Laughter.] 

XYI. 

in my boyish days, before manhood had hardened my thews and 
muscles, I received balls and arrows in this body, in defence of suffering 
humanity, particularly women and children, against the Indians ; and I 
aided in reclaiming the brightest spot of the South— Alabama. When I 
remember that, in those early days, I assisted in rescuing females and 
children from the relentless tomahawk and scalping knife, it seems to me 
that the charge that I have stooped to court favor by the expression of 
my sentiments on this questioi^, is one which falls harmless at my feet. 



324 JUSTICE TO THE RED MEN. 

XVII. 

So far as the subject of our relations with the Indians is con- 
cerned, this, the most recent speech of Houston, stands credita- 
bly by the side of his other efforts in the same field. We learn 
something from it, too, of his own early history, which will be 
read with no ordinary interest. The remainder of his speech on 
the occasion will be suitable for the next section of this work, 
as it is connected with a topic that is becoming the ruling theme 
in every State in the Union — and not without reason, for if our 
institutions were worthy to be gained, most assuredly it is 
worthy of us to endeavor to preserve them from the corruption 
that is stealthily impairing our nationality. Yet, ere the sub- 
ject of our Indian relations is dismissed, it should not be forgot- 
ten that though Senator Houston does not conceive that any 
political value can accrue to him from an advocacy of the 
Indian's cause, the public will view the subject differently. 
There is in the American heart, a deeply-seated and ineradicable 
sense of justice, that will not submit to any outrages upon the 
Indian nations. Besides they are valuable to our coast on the 
Pacific, and will eventually blend with the natives of Eastern 
Asia, producing results of vast importance to the growth and 
prosperity of the continent. On this point, therefore, the views 
of Houston cannot be deemed either trivial or unimportant in a 
political or national point of view. 



HOUSTON QUESTIONED IN THE SENATE. 325 



SECTION EIGHTEENTH. 

HOUSTON AND FOREIGN EMIGRATION. 
I. 

It was in the same speech, on the last day of 1854, that 
Houston was called upon by a senator, to answer questions so 
pointed as to demand replies without either reservation or pre- 
varication. The plain, blunt manner in which the answers were 
given, v/ill not be without their effect upon every sincere lover 
of this country, who has deterfnined to find here a home for him- 
self, or for his children — for there is no man worthy of the 
name of American citizen who is not alive to the danger to be 
apprehended from the present inroads made upon the political 
power of our States, by the immense influx of foreigners unpre- 
pared to feel and know the value, much less to comprehend the 
importance of preserving our institutions as nearly as possible 
as they were transmitted to us by our political fathers. The 
apprehension that Houston will prove the most powerful candi- 
date in the field for the next Presidential campaign was the 
cause of the attempt on the part of Mr. Mallory, to obtain some- 
thing like a platform for the politicians to understand, probably 
Avith a view to that ultimate defeat which is more easily desired 
than safely prophesied. Let us not detain the reader, how- 
ever, from studying the replies of the hero of San Jacinto. 



326 Houston's opinion of foreigners. 



II. 

I hardly know what to think of the gentleman's remarks as to catering 
for the Presidency. I hardly know what to say about the extraneous sub- 
jects which he has introduced. I suppose the shortest way of naming 
what he intended to allude to, is by the term "Know-Nothing." JVow, 
of the Know-JVothings I know nothing (laughter) ; and of them I care 
nothing. But if the principles which I see charged to them in many 
instances are the principles which they seek to carry out, I can say to 
gentlemen that I concur in many of them. If their object is to resist the 
encroachments of one religion or sect upon another, I am with them. I 
say resist all such encroachments, and leave all religion uncontaminated 
by the perversion of power that might accidentally result iu proscription 
and the inquisition. ** Fll none of it ;" I am opposed to and would pre- 
vent such a result. 

III. 

I admit that we are all descended from foreigners, because, originally, 
there were no natives here who were white men. Many of those foreigners 
who originally came here, were baptized in the blood of the Revolution ; 
but they were not such men as are now coming to our shores, and should 
not be named in connection with those who are spewed loathingly from 
the prisons of England, and from the pauper houses of Europe. Such mea 
are not to be compared to our ancestry, or to the immigration which, until 
recently, has come to our shores from foreign countries. If the object of 
those to whom the Senator from Iowa has referred, is to prevent men of 
iyifamous character and paupers from coming here, 1 agree with them. 
I would say, establish a law, requiring every person from abroad, 
before being received here, to bring an endorsement from one of our 
consicls abroad, and produce evidence of good character from the place 
whence he emigrates, so that when he comes here, we may receive him 
into full communion with all the rights guaranteed to him by the laws 
which may exist at the time of his emigration. 

IV. 

But, sir, to say that a felon, who left his prison the day he sailed for 
this country, or, perhaps, was brought in chains to the vessel which bore 



HOUSTON CROSS-QUESTIONED, 321 

him here, is, in five years, to stand an equal with the proudest man who 
walks on our soil, the man who has shed his blood to consecrate liberty 
and his country, is not the kind of arrangement that I go for. 

Mr. MALLORY — Will the Senator from Texas allow me to ask him one 
question ? 

Mr. HOUSTON— With pleasure. 

Mr. MALLORY — As the subject of Know-Nothingism, as it is called, has 
been brought here 

Mr. HOUSTON — I have not introduced it, and I am not going to com- 
ment on it. 

V. 

Mr. MALLORY— Precisely so ; the senator has not introduced the sub- 
ject, and perhaps he is not responsible for its introduction ; but he is 
undertaking to say what he himself thinks upon it. Now, as he is speak- 
ing on the subject, I should like to understand distinctly, whether he 
approves or does not approve of so much of the creed attributed to the 
Know-A''othings, as would make those who profess the Roman Catholic 
religio7i ineligible to office 7 

Mr. HOUSTON— I would vote for no such law. 

Mr. MALLORY — I asked the gentleman whether he approved that or 
not — not whether he would vote for it. 



yi. 

Mr. HOUSTON — No, sir ; I could not approve of such a law. But the 
proscription which is charged on those to whom allusion has been made, 
is no more than formerly existed between whigs and democrats. When 
party discipline was kept up, if a whig voted for a democratic candidate, 
he was ruled out of his party, and branded as a deserter ; and if a demo- 
crat voted for a whig, he was disowned by his party. That species of 
political proscription will exist everywhere, according to the notions of 
people. I do not set up my opinion as the doctrine by which other people 
are to be governed. I am governed by my own principles, and my own 
sentiments, and I have a right to vindicate them, and I am responsible for 
them to the world. When the Senator from Iowa supposes that I would 
cater for the Presidency of the United States, he does me great injustice. 
I would not cater for any office beneath heaven. (^Pause.) But, sir, I 



328 JEALOUSY OF HOUSTON. 

know one tfiing : if it were to he thrust upon me, I should make a great 
many changes in some sjnall matters. [Laughter.] 



yii. 

Mr. DODGE, of Iowa — Mr. President, I have no desire to prolong this 
controversy with the senator from Texas. No man understands better 
than I do, how much I must suffer in any intellectual contest with one 
so skilled and renowned in debate, almost as much as he is in arms. I 
know his ability to say as much on one side as on the other, a manifesta- 
tion of which we have had, in the conclusion of his remarks. (Laughter.) 
Sir, I charged, and I repeat the charge, that the speech of the senator 
from Texas, would have done well if delivered by a Massachusetts feder- 
alist, or for a man from western New York — that region in which all the 
isms, from anti-masonry down, have originated. I have read the speeches 
of these eastern gentlemen, and I am aware of the manner in which this 
Indian question has been dragged into politics in times past ; and I know 
the purpose to which it is to be again prostituted in the approaching 
Presidential canvass ; I see attempted, in connection with the Kansas and 
Nebraska law, the appeal that is to be made to couple with that measure 
this one, which is to provide for the defence of the country. I repeat, so 
far as I am concerned, that so long as I have a voice or a vote, I will 
remember those who refuse to give us protection 



YIII. 

Unquestionably, should the popular will in behalf of Houston 
be expressed with the same warmth that it has been for some 
considerable term now gone by, these views will have no weight 
except to carry the balance in his favor. However, it is our 
province to record, rather than to conjecture. We have to do 
with the man as he has been — not as he may be. The struggle 
to satisfy the demands of the country, when the candidates for 
the next Presidential term are selected, will be great. Doubt- 
less, it will be impossible to leave out of the list the man who, 
above all others, tried or untried in holding the reins of power, 



THE PUBLIC VOICE. 329 

Stands conspicuous for qualities of head and heart inherent by 
nature and chastened by cultivation, which stamp him as sig- 
nally fitted for the position to which the wants of the country, 
as well as the popular voice, should raise him. In the next con- 
test, if we err not in our estimate of the motives which will rule 
the popular vote, conventions will be obliged to surrender the 
old machinery of party to those general expressions of the pub- 
lic voice, which will grow more and more loud as the hour 
approaches for determining who shall be the Chief Magistrate of 
the United States. 



330 FIRST ATTEMPTS FOR ANNEXATIOJT. 



SECTION NINETEENTH. 

THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 
I. 

The struggle made in the Congress of the United States to 
bring Texas into the Union, was so important that some further 
reference to the subject should be Here made. While Texas 
was yet a Republic, and as early as 1888, an application was 
made by Houston to place it under the jurisdiction of our 
Federal Government. It was his first official act as President 
of Texas, to send an agent to Washington to make known his 
wishes and his hopes. Soon after, he dispatched another envoy 
with extraordinary powers, but to these applications there was 
no satisfactory result. In 1841, another trial was made through 
Mr. Riley. This was followed up by Mr. Yan Zandt. Nothing, 
however, was accomplished — and Texas was forced to stand 
alone. 

II. 

Wearied with these vain attempts to gain admission into the 
Confederacy, a policy was adopted that hastened the destiny of 
the young Republic. England was coquetted with, till appre- 
hensions were entertained by men in the United States, and by 
its Government, that there was a possibility of losing Texas 
for ever. This feeling increased even to alarm : for even at that 



WAR WITH MEXICO. 331 

period it was well understood that the British Government 
would gladly interpose barriers to our growth in national 
wealth, dominion, and power, for the sake of checking the pro- 
gress of republican liberty, by which European governments 
have been so much menaced during the present century. At 
that time it was contemplated, even by the British Government, 
to gain California, and thus to place a monarchical colony on 
our most important border. The action of Texas, therefore, in 
seeking the good will of Great Britain was more than diploma- 
tic. It was sagacious ; and, as events have proved, was vastly 
important in its results. 



III. 

At the beginning of President Polk's administration, and 
while the Northwestern Boundary Question was agitating the 
whole country, and wearing a warlike aspect, the Texas dispute 
was at its height. On the one hand, the country was threat- 
ened with a war with Great Britain ; and, on the other hand, 
with Mexico. The Oregon boundary was settled by negotiation 
— but the Texas controversy ended in a war with the Mexican 
power. In August, 1845, General Zachary Taylor encamped at 
Corpus Christi, on the Gulf of Mexico, and remained there until 
the ensuing month of March. Annexation had taken place by 
a Joint Resolution of Congress, passed in February ; and in 
obedience to instructions, General Taylor, on the 11th of March, 
went towards the Rio Grande, and commenced a correspondence 
with the Mexican Dictator, Paredes, on the true boundary of 
the new State. 

lY. 

On the first of May, the Mexican General, Arista, marched a 
force to the Texan bank of the Rio Grande, and this was the 



832 DEBATES ON THE ANNEXATION. 

commencement of the war with Mexico, iu v\'hich, it may be 
said, with truth, that the American people displayed but little 
of that spirit of nationality which distmguishes all other 
nations. A large portion of the people were opposed to the 
war, and did not cast aside their prejudices in one common 
feeling against the enemy. This state of afl'airs was caused by 
the passions which had been inflamed by tne introduction of 
Texas into the Union — a measure that was opposed, as was 
alleged, on the ground that it was " unconstitutional to admit her 
without the intervention and sanction of th*^ people, and, also, 
because there was a strong apprehension of dangers from in- 
creasing the area of slavery." 



The debate upon the proposition to ^dmit Texas into the 
Union had been warm in both houses of Congress, and the 
excitement attending the final action or' one subject was intense. 
Men were more engaged in magnifying: ine dangers to be appre- 
hended from a possible extension of tne slavery system, than in 
contemplating the grave importance, in every aspect of public" 
economy and of national aggrandizement, of possessing so grand 
a territory for future improvement and use as the soil of Texas. 
Its commercial value was lost sight of. Its command of the 
Gulf trade, or the most western ports of the Atlantic, was over- 
looked, and only a few men dared to maintain that the wants of 
j)Osterity would render the new State an invaluable possession. 
"The great, and vast, and illimitable Texas," as Webster 
styled it, was deemed of little importance compared with the 
turbulent expressions of sincere, or pretended dread, that the 
extension of territory liable to slave labor, necessarily involves 
the perpetuation of African servitude — a problem still unsolved, 
but not without solution, when the subject is left to the wisdom 



MEXICAN TRIBUTE TO ANGLO-AMERICANS. 333 

and to the commercial sagacity of those most interested in the 
question. 

YI. 

It is not our purpose to enter upon the political history of the 
time in which Texiis and its admission to the Union became a 
vexed question. Jt is our object to glance at some prominent 
facts connected with the subject, before we proceed to show the 
value of the State of Texas to the Confederacy. And we cannot 
better commence this part of our work, in order to show the 
claims of Houston to the distinction which has been awarded to 
his exertions, thar by quoting from a Mexican newspaper, of 
1845, a prophecy which has passed on to its fulfillment. The 
writer says : " Texas is gone — gone for ever, and beyond 
redemption — to our natural enemies, the Anglo-Americans, who 
know but too well *iow to estimate us at our just value. Let 
us not be deceived by the promised vindication of our rights, so 
pompously paraded in public speeches, and official documents. 
Our threats are paper threats, as was justly observed by one of 
the boldest statesmen in the neighboring Republic. Texas, we 
repeat it, is lost to Mexico ! And here we are forced to a con- 
fession — a bitter one, indeed. That Department, wrested from 
us by an act of usurpation and perfidy never before equalled, 
will at once start on a new career of improvement and prospe- 
rity — safe from savage inroads, arbitrary exactions, and unjust 
prohibitions and mouopolies. A fertile soil will plentifully 
reward the honest labor of the husbandman, the mechanic arts 
will flourish, each citizen will be free to arm himself for his own 
and his country's defence, and each will have the right to prac- 
tice, unmolested, tha religion which his conscience sanctions and 
dictates. Texas, bv renouncing her separate sovereignty, will 
cease to be, as heretofore, a country of outlaws, and become a 
part of a powerful aation, whose growing prosperity will shed 



334 A PICTURE OF TEXAS. 

its beneficial influence over the new territory. Such is the des- 
tiny of that Department severed from us, and now forming part 
of the American Union. The tendency of an example so perni- 
cious, is clear to all." 



YII. 



There was occasion for alarm on the part of Mexico, at this 
position of Texas, for there were Departments in her domain 
which, at the time, were ripening for political revolution and 
change. On this point we need not dwell. Let us notice, 
rather, the very important improvement which took place in 
Texas, immediately after she became one of our States, in res- 
pect to her social character. Law and order soon softened and 
harmonized the crude elements which marked her population ; 
and villages, towns, and cities, arose on every hand, busy with 
the industry, skill, and vigor of a thriving and worthy people. 
The school-house was built by the way-side. Churches dotted 
the lawns and the hill-sides. The courts of law adminis- 
tered justice to all — and, on every side, there were indications 
of prosperity and security. The Mexican prophecy was more 
than fulfilled ; and the wisdom of the man who had patiently 
sought, calmly waited, and confidingly persevered, to rescue a 
vast domain from lawlessness, and to place it as a star in our 
constellation of republics, was shown in the culture of the soil 
and in all the external symbols of refinement and civilization. 
At the present time, no State in the Union is more inviting to 
those who would seek a home in a new country, as will be evi- 
dent to those who endeavor to learn the nature of her social 
character — the extent of her industrial resources, and the oppor- 
tunities which may be secured for advancement in all the learned 
professions, and in the walks of commercial and agricultual life. 



RESOURCES OF TEXAS. 335 



YIII. 



When Texas was first a debated question, little was known 
of lier vast and multiform resources. Time has made the 
world wiser. The soil and climate are such that the State is 
now looked upon as the Garden of the World. For the cultiva- 
tion either of tobacco, or cotton, corn, wheat, or hemp, her 
soil is not surpassed by the most generous lands of other States. 
The peculiarity of her soil renders the wheat grown within her 
borders the most profitable yet known to our country, and with 
but little labor the ground produces abundantly, giving its crops 
as early as June. Tobacco and cotton are seen growing on the 
field where corn is a neighbor. Nature is everywhere bountiful. 
With further exploration, her mines will be found, it is thought, 
second in importance to none in the other States. As a grazing 
country she is without a rival, and the animals slaughtered for 
their hides and for provisions, furnish afterwards thousands of 
tons of bones annually, which are shipped to New York, where 
they are converted into phosphate of lime, and sold to our 
farmers for the improvement of the wasted or sterile soils of the 
North. Thus the benefit of Texas to the North is witnessed in 
many States which were originally opposed to her introduction 
into the Union. This is not all. The trade of the Atlantic 
States with Texas is every day becoming more and more impor- 
tant. Every year increases it — and, as the climate is salu- 
brious, the population is rapidly increasing, and the State 
will eventually become the most important in the Southern 
country. 

IX. 

There is another point not to be forgotten. Texas is the 
great Commercial Isthmus, by which the nations of the earth 



336 TEXAS THE ROAD TO THE PACIFIC. 

will pass ere loug to the Pacific Oceau. Geograpliically, this 
does not appear so ; but the surveys made for railroads to our 
Western shores conclusively demonstrate that when a road is 
built to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, it will run 
through Texas. Such a road will not be obstructed by the 
snows and ice incident to more northern latitudes. Besides, 
this road, if constructed to San Diego, in California, will bring 
Australia fifteen hundred miles nearer than it would be from 
auy other point that could be designated. These considerations 
will increase in importance as the necessity for the construction 
of a national road is felt by the public. A military road to Cali- 
fornia, is now needed by the government for purposes which pru- 
dent statesmen can easily comprehend as possible — and a wise 
policy will not neglect, till the force of circumstances incite to 
action, an application to a subject so important to us as a 
commercial people, and as a nation. The money expended by 
the country in building and keeping in repair forts and forti- 
fications on the western frontiers, might be disbursed more judi- 
ciously in the construction of military roads, which would be 
safe highways for the great tide of emigration sweeping West- 
ward. The question of the province of Congress with respect 
to Internal Improvements does not trench upon this species of 
enterprise — for the wants of the people and the demands of 
humanity alike suggest, that the Federal Government should 
make some provision for opening ways across the country to our 
Western shores. This is not the place, however, to enlarge 
upon this interesting subject. Our design is to show that Texas 
is the ground over which the great national road to the Pacific 
must pass — and so well assured are we of this, that we advert 
to it as another proof of the great importance of the annexa- 
tion of Texas to the Union. The conformation of continents and 
oceans, must make Texas the highway from New York to San 
Francisco. 



GIRDED CY TWO OCEANS. 337 

X. 

There are other reasons for estimating the acquisition of Texas 
as a national blessing. When we reflect upon what she might 
have become, had we refused her admission to the Union, we 
cannot look upon the past but with mingled feelings of dread 
and thankfulness. Had the sectional animosity that opposed 
the admission of Texas prevailed, the most serious consequences 
might have ensued. Happily the luxuriant and swelling prai- 
ries, the fertile hills, and the beautifully irrigated valleys of that 
delightful country are our own — happily, that coast which 
stretches along the Gulf of Mexico is ours for the enlargement 
of commerce, and for the protection of our Southern borders — 
happily, the jurisdiction of the United States, though it has no 
power over her domain, as in some other territories, can be 
exerted to extend the benefits of legislation to her people, and 
to those who hereafter may desire to become residents of that 
State, or sojourners in it on their way to the extreme West. 
Whenever the road to California is completed, then, over this 
Commercial Isthmus of the Continent, the American- people will 
appreciate how far superior to all minor questions are those great 
national ones which involve the happiness of millions upon mil- 
lions of men, and which tend to perpetuate the security of the 
nation ; at any time liable to temporary aggression from nations 
desirous to check our advancing prosperity, between the two 
oceans which gird our shores. 

XI. 

A fatal political mistake would have been made, had the 
councils of party prevailed over the stern necessity of circum- 
stances with respect to the admission of Texas to the Union. In 
1802, Georgia was induced to oede that part of her territory 

15 



338 CAUSES FOR CONGRATULATION. 

now known as Alabama and Mississippi. In 1 803, Louisiana 
was purchased from France — and from this we have the States 
of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Missouri. In 1819, the cession of 
Florida was made by Spain. What more natural and inevitable 
destiny was there for Texas, from its geographical and political 
position, than to yield to the embrace of the Confederacy ? It is 
in vain for men, when circumstances of every kind point to a result 
so manifestly necessary, to array the league of abstract morals 
and sectional jealousies against it. Thus it proved in the case 
of Texas ; and, whatever may be the particular scruples of con- 
science in individual minds as to the means employed to secure 
such a benefit as Texas has proved to be to the United States, 
all will agree that we have been enriched by this acquisition of 
territory, great as has been the cost, beyond any possible human 
estimate. Of the issues which have grown out of it, the future 
will declare more than prophecy itself could foresee. With an effi- 
cient Chief Magistrate to stay the inflammatory fever raised dur- 
ing the last year so needlessly, and in opposition to all the desires 
of the nation at large, both at the North and South, we may 
expect to live through the " trouble," and not even regret that 
Texas was a proximate cause of so gratuitous an agitation of 
the public mind. Should the people be alive to the interests of 
the country as a confederated nationality, we need not fear that 
any regret will attend our recollections of the annexation of a 
State of which Houston was the political father. 

XIL 

From present appearances, we may then conclude, that the 
beautiful country given to the Union by the man whose servi- 
ces to the public we are considering — is destined to be second 
in importance to no other, when the public mind becomes 
acquainted with the almost boundless extent of her resources, 



UNIVERSAL BLESSINGS. 339 

with the remarkable geographical position she occupies m refer- 
ence to our Pacific coast, and with the delicious mildness of her 
climate. Already thousands of persons have emigrated to that 
State, where all the enjoyments and privileges of refinement and 
civilization are rapidly increasing, to open an inviting way, by 
an overland route, to California, and thus to secure to the 
United States the full measure of prosperity promised by the 
discovery and acquisition of the gold regions on the Pacific. 
Health and its preservation are not subjects of trivial impor- 
tance, and emigrants will select the road through Texas in pre- 
ference to any other, when it is built, because it will offer 
the greatest number of facilities for a speedy and safe passage to 
the Pacific coast. Should, then, the future establish Texas as 
the great gate and highway to California, how much reason have 
we to congratulate ourselves on the annexation of Texas, once 
deemed so disastrous, and how pitiably insignificant in compa- 
rison is the slavery question as a barrier to the march of 
all nations towards increased happiness and prosperity. On 
the whole, then, we may rejoice that we have Texas in the 
Union — and learn, also, from the outcry made against her 
admission, how unimportant it is to believe that the Xorth is to 
be the sufferer by what is said to be the extension of the 
" peculiar institutions" of the South. May the day come when 
the agitation on this subject shall cease, that involuntary servi- 
tude may perish from natural causes, and not be made stronger 
by the very means employed to destroy its existence ! 

XIII. 

Lest the reader may suppose that Texas was acquired for the 
purpose of extending slavery, as party politicians averred before 
she came into the Union, we may cite from a s^^ech made in 
the Senate of the United States, to show by facts that this 



340 Benton's opinions. 

was not the case. It was said by Mr. Benton, in 1836 : 
"Heartless is the calumny invented and propagated, not from 
this floor, but elsewhere, on the cause of the Texan revolt. It 
is said to be a war for the extension of slavery. It had as well 
been said that our own Revolution v\^as a war for tlie extension 
of slavery. So far from it, that no revolt, not even our own, 
ever had a more just and a more sacred origin. The settlers in 
Texas went to live under the form of government which they 
had left behind in the United States — a government which 
extends so many guarantees for life, liberty, property, and the 
pursuit of happiness, and which their American and English 
ancestors had vindicated for so many hundred years, A succes- 
sion of violent changes in government, and the rapid overthrow 
of rulers, annoyed and distressed them ; but they remained tran- 
quil under every violence which did not immediately bear on 
themselves. In 1822 the republic of 1821 was superseded by 
the imperial diadem of Iturbide. In 1823 he was deposed and 
banished, returned, and was shot, and Victoria made President. 
Mentuno and Bravo disputed the presidency with Victoria ; and 
found, in banishment, the mildest issue known among Mexicans 
to unsuccessful civil war. Pedraza was elected in 1828 ; Guerrero 
overthrew him the next year. Then Bustamente overthrew 
Guerrero ; and, quickly, Santa Anna overthrew Bustamente, 
and, with him, all the forms of the constitution, and the whole 
frame of the federative government. By his own will, and by 
force, Slinta Anna dissolved the existing Congress, convened 
another, formed the two Houses into one, called it a Convention 
— and made it the instrument for deposing, without trial, the 
constitutional Vice President, Gomez Fatias, putting Barragau 
into his place, annihilating the State government, and establish- 
ing a consolidated government, of which he was monarch, under 
the retained ^-epublican title of President. Still, the Texans 
did not take up arms : they did not acquiesce, but they did not 



FIRST STROKE FOR FREEDOM. 341 

revolt. They retained their State government in operation, and 
looked to the other States, older and more powerful than Texas, 
to vindicate the general cause, and to re-establish the federal 
constitution of 1824. In September, 1835, this was still her 
position. In that month, a Mexican armed vessel appeared off 
the coast of Texas, and declared her ports blockaded. At the 
same time, General Cos appeared in the West, with an army of 
fifteen hundred men, with orders to arrest the State authorities, 
to disarm the inhabitants, leaving one gun to every five hun- 
dred souls ; and to reduce the State to unconditional submission. 
Gonzales was the selected point for the commencement of the 
execution of these orders ; and the first thing was the arms, 
those trusty rifles which the settlers had bronght with them 
from the United States, which were their defence against 
savages, their resource for game, and the guard which converted 
their houses into castles stronger than those ' which the king 
cannot enter.' A detachment of General Cos's army appeared 
at the village of Gonzales, on the 28th of September, and 
demanded the arms of the inhabitants ; it was the same demand, 
made for the same purpose, which the British detachment, under 
Major Pitcairn, had made at Lexington, on the 16th of April, 
1775. It was the same demand ! And the same answer was 
given — resistance — battle — victory ! The American blood was 
at Gonzales what it had been at Lexington ; and between using 
their arms, and surrendering their arms, that blood can never 
hesitate. Then followed the rapid succession of briUiant events, 
which in two months left Texas without an armed ^emy in her 
borders, and the strong forts of Goliad and the Alamo, with 
their garrisons and cannon, the almost bloodless prizes of a few 
hundred Texan rifles. This was the origin of the revolt ; and 
a calumny more heartless can never be imagined than that which 
would convert this rich and holy defence of life, liberty, and 
property, into an aggression for the extension of slavery. Just 



342 B E N T X * S DEFENCE OF TEXAS. 

in its origin, valiant and humane in its conduct, the Texan revolt 
has illustrated the Anglo-Saxon character, and given it new- 
titles to the respect and admiration of the world. It shows that 
liberty, justice, valor — moral, physical, and intellectual power — • 
characterise that race wherever it goes. Let our America 
rejoice, let old England rejoice, that the Brasos and Colerado, 
new and strange names — streams far beyond the western bank 
of the Father of Floods — have felt the impress, and witnessed 
the exploits of a people sprung from their loins, and carrying 
their language, laws, and customs, their magna charta and its 
glorious privileges, into new regions and far distant climes." 



XIV. 



It may not be less a calumny for men to avow that the early 
population of Texas was composed of outlaws. Every new 
country offers fields for the honorable efforts of those who 
would retrieve the errors by which they may have purchased 
experience. While Texas was no exception to the general rule 
of all new colonial countries, the defence of its character from 
too much stress upon this point was thus given before the 
Senate of the United States. With it we will conclude this 
section of our work : " Great is the mistake which has 
prevailed in Mexico, and in some parts of the United States, on 
the character of the population which has gone to Texas. It 
has been common to disparage and to stigmatize them. 
Nothing could be more unjust ; and speaking from knowledge, 
either personally or well acquired (for it falls to my lot to know, 
either from actual acquaintance, or good information, the mass 
of its inhabitants), I can vindicate them from erroneous impu- 
tations, and place their conduct and character on the honorable 
ground which they deserve to occupy. The founder of the 



THE FOUNDERS OF TEXAS. 843 

Texan colony was Mr. Moses Austin, a respectable and enter- 
prising native of Connecticut, and largely engaged in the lead 
mines of Upper Louisiana, in 1815. Tlie present head of the 
colony, his son, Mr. Stephen F. Austin, then a very young 
man, was a member of the Territorial Legislature, distinguished 
for his intelligence, business habits, and gentlemanly conduct. 
Among the grantees we distinguish the name of Robertson, son 
of the patriarchal founder, and the first settler of West Tennes- 
see. Of the body of emigrants, most of them are heads of 
families or enterprising young men, gone to better their condi- 
tion by receiving grants of fine lands in a fine climate, and to 
continue to live under the republican form of government to which 
they had been accustomed. There sits one of them, [pointing to 
Mr. Carson, member of Congress, from North Carolina, and then, 
1836, Secretary of State for Texas.] We all know him ; our 
greetings on his appearance in this chamber attest our respect ; 
and such as we know him to be, so do I know the multitude 
to be who have gone to Texas. They have gone, not as 
intruders, but as grantees ; and to become a barrier between 
the Mexicans and the marauding Indians who infested their 
borders." 



XY. 



Surely a population, originating in such a primitive stock as 
this has been described to have been, though bold rather than 
wise spirits were her counsellors at first, cannot be other than 
suitable for the association of those enterprising men of other 
States, who see in the wilderness fields worthy of cultivation, and 
which more rapidly than those of older States give speedy rewards 
to industry. The means used by party newspapers to strengthen 
the public animosity towards Texas, included, for several years, 
exaggerated and abusive misrepresentations of the people of the 



844 PRESENT STATE OF TEXAS. 

new Republic, " G. T. T.," or " Gone to Texas," was the favo- 
rite mode of accounting for the absence of any person who had 
forfeited, by design, or through misfortune, his claim to be con- 
sidered a good citizen. In this way Texas became a name for 
reproach. Time has changed all this ; and now the State is a 
favorite one for emigrants from every part of our country and 
from Europe, and she is, therefore, becoming rapidly rich in the 
great Increase of her population. 



XVI. 

Before leaving this important branch of our subject, and for 
the purpose of showing the extent of that political foresight 
that distinguished Houston in associating his fortunes with 
those of Texas, it will be profitable to look at the very valuable 
moral for States and people which is found in the still earlier his- 
tory of Texas, and in the causes which shut her out from the 
position, which, happily for the United States, she now occupies. 
Had she come into her proper place at an earlier period, and 
not been kept in obscurity by considerations which seemed 
important to individuals, rather than to the aggrandizement of 
the nation at large, we should have been spared the long train 
of evils which terminated in the expensive and disastrous, though 
successful and brilliant, war with Mexico. Such has been the 
fruit of the agitation of the slavery question I Similar will be 
the results in all cases while men persist in making that subject 
a party question, instead of leaving the institution to the mani- 
fest and inevitable destiny to which it must hasten, when left 
free to compete with the general freedom in commerce and 
trade which animates our prairies, and extends itself to the most 
tangled regions of the Western wilds. 



PREJUDICE AGAINST ANNEXATION. 345 



XYII. 

In 1819, in acquiring Florida, the government of the United 
States abandoned Texas. The new boundaries made by the nego- 
tiator of the treaty, John Quincy Adams, at the suggestion of a 
majority of President Monroe's cabinet, not only cut away 
Texas, but surrendered a portion of the Mississippi valley. This 
was a popular measure ; and, though the Spanish government 
had offered the country more than it had accepted, yet the policy 
of our government was so weak as to deprive us of that which 
has since cost us so mucli blood and treasure to regain. In 1820, 
Mr. Monroe, in endeavoring to justify his action with respect 
to the treaty, stated that the " difficulties" were not with Spain 
alone — they were " internal, proceeding from various causes 
which certain men are prompt to seize and turn to the account 
of their own ambitious views." 



XYIII. 

These "difficulties" were the fear that the slavery extension 
question would become a test in the Presidential election, and 
the repugnance in the Northeast to territorial aggrandizement 
in the Southwest — the folly of which is clearly demonstrated 
by every step in our country's history, though the agitation of 
this subject, in some shape, still afflicts the public mind, and hin- 
ders our progress as a united nation. 



XIX. 



Three times did the treaty come before the Senate of the 
15* 



S46 NEW FEELINGS TOWARDS TEXAS 

United States for ratification. This was caused by the state 
of affairs between Mexico and Spain, which rendered it neces- 
sary to establish the boundary with the government of the 
former, instead of that of the latter. Three times did the 
American press congratulate the people on this action of our 
government — one of the gravest political blunders of the nation. 



XX. 



As our pages have already shown, a few years only elapsed, 
before there was a general desire on the part of the American 
people to possess this very Texas, which we would not receive 
from Spain originally, because by so doing the "ambitious 
views " of men might have been disturbed. The moral thus far 
is important enough — but it can be extended, because, strangely 
enough, all that had been accomplished was the work of Southern 
men, with the sanction of the South — men who were candidates 
for the Presidency, or who hoped to advance to high offices of 
trust and pov/er. Xo wonder that the question is so fre- 
quently asked, if there is such a thing as American nationality 
— when the people will permit trivial political topics to interfere 
with the natural growth of the nation. Texas, however, is now 
a part of our political unit, and that it is so every honest Ameri- 
can will rejoice — and, while doing so, will render due praise to 
him whose exertions saved her from the grasp of a foreign 
nation, and gave her to us, even at the sacrifice of all the 
allurements which excite ambitious men. That his proposal to 
declare her a part of Louisiana, under the treaty of 1803, 
was disregarded, should excite our regrets, but for the valuable 
lessous the nation has gained in its political experience. 



PRODUCTS OF TEXAS. 84T 



SECTION TWENTIETH. 

THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE OF TEXAS. 
I. 

A RAPID survey of the Present of Texas will not be uninte- 
resting, as it will prepare the reader to form an estimate of its 
probable Future. Let us not forget that only a few years ago 
this State was repulsed by hundreds of thousands of American 
citizens, as a useless and dangerous addition to the Union — and 
thereby learn, when contemplating any great ofi&cial act of the 
country, to cast aside prejudice, and the sinister judgments of 
others, as of little value compared with the lessons of experi- 
ence which every few years furnish an enlightened people, who 
strive to understand for themselves the political problems of the 
time. 

11. 

Texas is divided into eighty counties, containing about twelve 
million acres of laud, of which about one-twelfth is improved. 
The value of this land in money has been estimated to be 
eighteen millions of dollars. Probably not less than twenty- 
eight thousand farmers are at work, at the present hour, to 
enrich this State, employing farming implements and machinery, 
valued at nearly three million dollars. In 1850 there were 
over seventy-five thousand horses, twelve thousand mules, two 



348. PRODUCTS OF TEXAS. 

hundred and fifteen thousand nnlcb cows, and fifty thousand work- 
ing oxen, in the State, the free population of which was not far 
from one hundred and fifty-five thousand persons. The slave 
population was about fifty-eight thousand. The population has 
increased rapidly within the last five years, and when the 
returns are made under the next census, the increase in all that 
makes a State valuable to itself and mankind, will be such as 
to gratify every one who delights in the prosperity of his 
country. 

III. 

We have before alluded to the productions of Texas ; but to 
show her commercial value more clearly, we may cite from 
public documents a few important facts. In 1850 the value of 
the live stock was upwards of ten millions of dollars, and of 
slaughtered animals upwards of one million of dollars. In the 
Bame year, the following were the principal products — forty-two 
thousand bushels of wheat ; three thousand bushels of rye ; six 
millions of bushels of Indian corn ; two hundred thousand bushels 
of oats ; eighty-eight thousand pounds of rice ; sixty-seven 
thousand pounds of tobacco ; fifty-eight thousand bales, four 
hundred pounds each, of ginned cotton ; one hundred and thirty 
one thousand pounds of wool ; one hundred and seventy-nine 
thousand bushels of i>eas and beans ; ninety-three thousand 
bushels of Irish potatoes ; upwards of one million bushels of 
sweet potatoes ; five thousand bushels of barley ; twelve thou* 
sand dollars' worth of orchard products ; the same amount of 
kitchen garden products ; tv.^o millions four hundred pounds of 
butter ; ninety-five thousand pounds of cheese ; eight thousand 
tons of hay ; one thousand pounds of flax ; twenty-two 
pounds of silk cocoons ; seven thousand three hundred and fifty 
hogsheads of sugar ; five hundred thousand gallons of molasses ; 
and four hundred thousand pounds of beeswax and honey. 



EDUCATION IN TEXAS, 349 



lY. 



Such are the staple products of this once proscribed State, 
and the variety of them will most clearly indicate the character 
of that soil and climate which is destined to be known to thou- 
sands of emigrants within a few years, and by the world gene- 
rally. There is no new State in the. Union that holds out 
greater inducements to the mechanic and the agi-iculturist, than 
Houston's Own, as it has been styled by one of our public 
WTiters. Education is not neglected in this State. There were 
in 1850 two colleges, with seven teachers, and one hundred and 
sixty-five students, three hundred and fifty pubhc schools, and 
ninety-seven academies and other schools. The number of 
pupils at school returned in the census of 1850 amounts to 
upwards of nineteen thousand, thus assuring the country that 
the elements of a future race of usefulness and prosperity are 
at work in the heart of Texas, which will yet distinguish it 
among the older and more highly favored sovereignties. 

V. 

With such a Present, what may not reasonably be expected 
as a Future ? There has been growing in the public mind, for 
some time past, a feeling of political compensation amounting 
almost to a national instinct, by which, in the selection of can- 
didates for the Presidential Chair, each section of the country, 
in its turn, shall be honorably remembered. Our new States 
have not yet been complimented by the American people in this 
way, and now seems to be the period when the attempt can be 
made. Should the merits of Houston bring him forward, and 
place him at the head of the nation, the influence upon the State 
of Texas would be very great, when combined with the power 
she possesses in her own remarkable and varied resources. 



350 FINAL DESTINY OF TEXAS. 

Besides, there is almost a certainty that the State will become 
the great and popular depot of commerce between the whole 
world and California, before the lapse of many years, 
when the construction of a railroad to the Pacific will bring 
within her domain an amount of population, enterprise, capital, 
industry, and energy, that will have a vast effect upon her 
wealth, and the individual prosperity of her people — vitalizing 
her rich and prolific soil, and bringing to her coast the ships of 
every nation, till history shall look back with wonder at the 
strange fact, that a territory so recently recovered from bar- 
barism, even amidst the sneers and opposition of a large portion 
of a civilized nation, should become, in so short a time, second 
in importance to no other State washed by the waters of the 
Atlantic. 

YI. 

The Future, then, of Texas, as one of the States of the 
Union, promises to be of the gravest interest to our commerce ; 
and it is not necessary to invoke the forecast of the Prophet 
to declare that she will shine second in brightness to no other 
star in our political firmament. 



Houston's education and eloquence. 351 



SECTION TWENTY-FIRST. 

Houston's education and eloquence. 
I. 

Though specimens of the literary capacity and intellectual 
cultivation of Houston have been given in this work, yet to 
afford a more complete insight into his moral and political cha- 
racter, further extracts from his speeches may be cited. The 
reader will be gratified to find that this man, under circumstances 
quite unfavorable to the cultivation of letters, has acquired a 
power of expression, and facility in illustrating his subject, which 
only could have been gained by a persistent study of the litera- 
ture of the world. In his military dispatches, he shows an 
admirable style — a wholesome, though not barren brevity — and 
a precision such as becomes an able general, in correspondence 
with the State. In various parts of this book, we have placed 
some of these before the reader, not less for the value of their 
contents, than for the beautiful perspicuity and directness of 
their style. In themselves, they furnish the very highest com- 
pliment to the innate taste and scholastic facility of their 
author, and we cannot but admire the man, who, under the 
most discouraging obstacles, and with powerful incentives to 
other accomplishments and deeds, has been able to distinguish 
himself in the literature of his native language, as well as in 
the active duties of public life. 



362 CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS SPEECHES. 

II. 

In his speeches, Senator Houston displays a native earnest- 
ness and force far more effective than the studied graces of 
the schools. His clear mind is not burdened with the sophis- 
tries of logic or the casuistry of politics. He speaks right on 
— animated with his subject, and as if certain that the orator 
never need to fear the result of unfolding the strong feelings of 
the heart, when the promptings of conscience, and not the dic- 
tates of self-interest, inspire the tongue. This species of appeal 
to the sensibilities and judgment, can never fail to have its due 
weight upon deliberative assemblies, or upon the people. The 
charms of rhetoric, like the purple and jewels on the shoulders 
and breast of the tyrant, may dazzle with gaudy brilliancy for 
a moment, and make men overlook their danger from the triumph 
of errors and oppression ; but the plain heart-spoken words of 
a true, patriotic man, are like the Apostolic apothegms — so in 
consonance with the conscience, as to proclaim the divinity of their 
origin. Senator Houston is not a great orator, but he is an 
effective one. His power is in his simplicity of expression, and 
in the familiar manner in which he speaks the native feelings of 
his heart, and the unselfish convictions of his judgment. 

III. 

The extracts from his speeches which we shall give in this 
chapter, will convey to the intelligent reader, not only Houston's 
opinions on many subjects of vast interest to the public, but 
may be deemed as average specimens of his style. On the sub- 
ject of "Intervention" he remarked that our government ought 
to abstain from entangling alliances with foreign nations, and 
confine its policy to the full development of its resources. He 
said — 



Ad A I N S T 1 N T E R V F. X T I N . 353 

lY.' 

" TheJIouse has been told that this is a subject of vast importance. In 
this light he regarded it, as far as he had been able to view it. He 
thought it a subject of no common importance, because it was about to 
take a direction perfectly novel. It is proposed to meet different nations, 
or their representatives, in a deliberative body, to establish certain.regu- 
lations which arc to govern our relation to foreign powers, and in our 
immediate relations. He concurred with the gentleman from South Caro- 
lina that it was quite new, because its effect would be to introduce a new 
era in the annals of this country. Hitherto we have evinced a disinclina- 
tion to entangle ourselves with alliances. We have exalted ourselves by 
persisting in a system that has been extremely beneficial to us, so long aa 
this system in which we persist, proves beneficial to us, either as a 
nation, or as individuals, so long ought it be retained. "We stand 
unshackled from all connection with the nations of the earth. We have 
our relations of amity and commerce with them, not treaties of alliance, 
offensive and defensive. Such relations the United States had hitherto 
sustained, and he hoped ever would sustain. 

V. 

" But are we to be benefited in our institutions by our associations with 
these other powers ? So far as any advantage was to be obtained by it, so 
far he was in favor of it ; but he was not willing that we should be 
embarrassed by a connection with them. The benefits of our institutions 
are free to all. Let them come here and receive them. If there were 
any good purpose to be answered by associating ourselves with them (Mr 
H. said), he would cheerfully coincide in so doing ; but he could not per- 
ceive the necessity of immediately dispatching ministers to meet in this 
assembly at Panama. We are not aware of what call they may make on 
us, nor could we see any probable benefits to the United States by this 
general meeting which would not result with our treaties with them in 
their individual national capacities. Hitherto we have been pursuing a 
rational policy. We have exalted ourselves by it. We stand alone, and 
we are well able to sustain ourselves. Twice have we been tested, and 
twice have our principles triumphed ; and they ever will triumph as long 
as we remain untrammelled and unburdened by foreign alliances. There are 
no dangers to impede us in our progress but such as can be guarded against. 



364 HOUSTON ON THE GREAT COMPROMISE. 

"Whilst we are in this situation we have no serious dangers to apprehend, 
but such as, in the progress of nations, will result, and which the good 
sense and wisdom of counsellors are always able to remedy before they 
became ruinous." 

VI. 

In February, 1850, Houston spoke on the Compromise Mea- 
sures. There is so much of earnest love of the Union — so much 
spontaneous patriotism in the few words before us, that we must 
place them in this work, as further illustrative of his character. 



YII. 

'•' I call on the friends of the Union from every quarter to come forward 
like men, and to sacrifice their diflferences upon the common altar of their 
country's good, and to form a bulwark around the Constitution that cannot 
be shaken. It will require manly efforts, sir, and they must expect to 
meet with prejudices growing up, that will assail them from every quar- 
ter. They must stand firm to the Union, regardless of all personal conse- 
quences. Time alone can recompense them for their sacrifice and their 
labors ; for devotion to country can never be forgotten when it is offered 
freely, and without expectation of reward. The incense of self-sacrifice, 
when thus offered on their country, will be acceptable to the people. I 
have no doubt that this question might be easily adjusted, if gentlemen 
would encourage such disposition and feeling, as doubless actuate a large 
portion, if not all, of this body, if they would come up to the work. I 
have no doubt six senators could here be designated, without reference to 
party (you may if you please disregard the portion of the country from 
which they come), who would act as a Committee of Conference, and sit 
down together as wayfaring men, and produce satisfactory reconciliation, 
thereby diffusing universal peace, and calming the agitated waves that 
are lashing at the base of our capitol, and speak comfort and solace to 
millions of freemen. 

VIII. 

" Do not the American people love this Union ? Are they not devoted 



DISUNION REBUKED. 356 

to it ? Is not every reminiscence of the past associated with its glories, 
and are they not calculated to inspire prayers for its prosperity and its 
perpetuity? If this were not the case, you might think lightly of our 
noblo confederacy ; but so it is — it stands connected with every fibre of 
the national heart, and is interwoven with every glorious recollection of 
the past, which affection or reverence can inspire in the minds of the 
American people. It is not, Mr. President, that tw^enty-three millions of 
souls are involved in the perpetuity of this Union ; it is not that every 
consideration of happiness connected with country appertains to it ; but 
it is because it is the great moral, social and political lever that has moved, 
is moving, and will continue to move the world. Look abroad at foreign 
nations, and behold the influence of our example upon them — not ours, for 
I feel a sense of humiliation when I contrast the efforts of any man uow 
living with the illustrious achievements of the departed sages and heroe* 
who performed this mighty work." 



IX. 

On the subject of Disunion — that subject which Andrew 
Jackson had to deal with boldly, as he did effectively, in the 
course of his Administration, we find a passage or two of great 
strength and significance. 

X. 

*' Mr. President — Twenty-seven years ago I had the honor to occupy a 
seat in the House of Representatives from the State of Tennessee. I recol- 
lect that in the discussion of the Tariff Act of 1824, for the first time in 
my life I heard the idea suggested, that there might be secession, disunion, 
or resistance to the constitutional authorities of the land. It produced 
deep and intense meditation on my part. I did believe, then, that an 
example ought to be made of it ; but there was no way to touch it. I 
have heard principles of disunion boldly avowed in this hall, and have 
heard Senators avow what was treason, not technically, but which was 
not stripped of one particle of the moral turpitude of treason. Disunion 
has been proclaimed in this hall. What a delightful commentary on the 
freedom of our institutions, and the forbearance of the public mind, when 
a man is permitted to go unscathed and unscourged, who, in a delibera- 



356 KOSSUTH AND LAFAYETTE. 

tive body like this, has made such a declaration ! Sir, no higher assur- 
ance can be given of the freedom of our institutions, and of the forbear- 
ance of the American people, and their reliance upon the reason, and the 
intelligence of the community. The intelligent mind is left free to com- 
bat error. Such sentiments, with their authors, will descend to the 
obscurity and the tomb of oblivion. I have only to say, in conclusion, 
that those who proclaim disunion, no matter of what name, politically — 
that those who, for the sake of disunion, conspire against the Union and 
the Constitution, are very beautifully described in Holy Writ. They are 
'raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame ; wandering stars, 
to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.' ''* 



XI. 

In reference to the policy of following the advice of Kossuth, 
with respect to the affairs of Hungary, and thereby embarrass- 
ing our system of foreign relations, Houston took a manly posi- 
tion. He said — 

XII. 

" "We had not escaped from these difficulties (the attempt to invade 
Cuba), when the advent of the illustrious stranger, Kossuth, was announced. 
I was not captivated by his advent, Mr. President. A portion of my life 
had been spent among the Indians. They are a cautious and considerate 
people, and I had learned to reconnoitre character a little when it comes 
about me, and I am liable to come in contact with it. I played the Indian, 
and was wary. I received him, sir, in concurrence with the other senators. 
I wished his country liberty, as I wished the world liberty ; but I did not 
wish to disregard our relations and obligations to other countries. He 
was hailed, he was greeted, he was welcomed, on some occasions, more 
triumphantly than even Lafayette, the friend of Washington. Compare 
the men, compare their feelings, their impulses, and their actions, and — 

:-' That was, to this, Hyperion to a satyr.' 

What claims had he upon us ? He had claims of sympathy. If he ever 
flashed his sword for Liberty, he had a claim on our admiration and our 



HUNGARY AND TEXAS. 35t 

fraternal feelings. But he had not done it. He had left Hungary, he 
had denounced Gorgey. and had thrown upon him the responsibility of the 
government. He disregarded his colleagues in oifice when he was at the 
head of affairs in Hungary. He threw all the responsibility upon Gorgey 
when Gorgey was helpless, and he himself had retreated with five thou- 
sand men. A beautiful army for liberty! Five thousand men alone, 
would strike for liberty against thousands on tiiousands. Yet he retreated 
with a body-guard of five thousand. And after he had negotiated for a 
succedaneum, for a resting-place, he went away, leaving * poor Hungary ' 
downtrodden and bleeding. Sir, much as I admire the patriots who 
strike for liberty — much as I admire the noble people whom Kossuth pur- 
ported to represent — much as I admire all men who have struggled, even 
unfortunately or misguidedly, for liberty, no matter where — much as I 
admire the promptings which actuated them, and love the cause in which 
they have been engaged, yet when a man proves recreant to a noble 
cause, forgets his people, lives in comfort, splendor, and display, when 
they have to bite the dust, or gnaw the file in agony, I have no sympathy 
for that man." 



XIII. 

" Was there then (in the Texan Revolution) a voice heard in this cham- 
ber advocating or introducing a resolution in vindication of the rights of 
Texas? Not one voice was heard at that time. Those gallant spirits who 
fell in hecatombs, with their footsteps almost on American soil, were 
hardly washed out or obliterated ; yet this nation was not convulsed. 
We heard of no sympathetic throb issuing from these chambers, no indig- 
nant voice raised in denunciation of the barbarities committed towards 
Texas. Did Texas ever complain to this government? From 1836 to 
1843, did she ever remonstrate to this government ? In 1843, when 
she did remonstrate, what was it ? She said to the three great 
powers of the earth, to France, England, and the United States : — 
' We ask no assistance, we invoke the invasion of our enemies, and upon 
a well-arranged and well-fought field, we will stake our liberty ; but 
compel our adversary to the rules of civilized warfare.' That was all we 
asked. The government of the United States, acting upon its wise, and 
prudent, and proper policy, did not interfere. 

*' I contend that while we maintain our national faith, it is not right to 
extend our jurisdiction beyond our own hemisphere. Let us be staid, 



358 WORK ENOUGH AT HOME. 

quiet, industrious, and reflective. When subjects are presented requiring 
action, let us act. Sir, this nation is destined to fill a vast space among 
the nations of the earth. Already, in its youth^ it is great and mighty ; 
majestic is its renown, and most infinite are its resources ; but those 
resources must be husbanded, and they must be cared for, for a while. It 
is in vain to extend speculations beyond the necessity of the times, and 
involve ourselves in fruitless troubles by anticipation. 

*'' Sir, we have much to do for ourselves to give us that iron hoop of which 
General Jackson spoke, which should be thrown around our continent. 
Sir, let us make an iron hoop binding California to the Atlantic. It is 
worth all the resolutions that could be introduced here in a thousand 
years on international law, foreshadowing our policy. That is a matter 
which enters into the very vitals of our national existence, and one that 
must be cared for, looked to, and by some means executed. It is a vast 
and eminently national work. Without it we are two nations. With it 
we should be one ; and we should command the trade of the world." 



XIY. 

On a resolutiou offered by Mr. Foote, declaring that the cele- 
brated Compromise Measures "Are, in the judgment of this 
body, a final settlement of the dangerous and exciting subjects 
which they embrace, and ought to be adhered to," Houston 
made a speech on the 22d of December, 1851, which has many 
points of great interest and force. Let us present some of them. 



XT. 

" I understand that the democratic party is tolerant in its principles ; 
that they are not proscriptive ; that they are not for applying the Pro- 
crustean rule to every member of the party. Harmonious, as they gener- 
ally are, some gentlemen of the same party differ essentially upon the 
subject of internal improvements. That has been evinced on former occa- 
sions here, within my recollection, and I believe it extends much further 
than my familiarity with the proceedings of this body. And not only 
that, for I have heard discussions here by the members of the same poli- 



WHAT IS THE COXSTITUTION? 359 

tical party on the tariff, iu regard to which there was a wide difference of 
opinion ; yet it was not a ground for proscribing the members of the 
party, or excluding them from participating in all the rights pertaining 
to it. 

XYI. 

" It is a- boast of the democratic party, I believe, that it is the true 
conservative party of this country, though, at the same time, this is the 
boast of every political party. I will not deprive either of them of the 
agreeable assurance. But, sir, if the democratic party is truly conserva- 
tive, I think the platform on which it now stands, is wide enough, broad 
enough, to embrace the whole Union. If it is not, I am not a member 
of it. I know that I have been arraigned for having been too latitudinarian 
in my feelings ; but I must confess that my country seems not too large 
to love, to cherish, and support. Then, sir, if the object of the party is 
conservatism, and to preserve what we believe the true constitutional 
principles of government, whoever loves and supports that constitution 
strictly, is my fellow. I know how the Constitution was formed. It was 
by concessions made by the several States, or by grants of certain powers 
that were to remain in the Federal Government ; but these delegated 
functions were to be exercised by it for the benefit of the whole. So far 
the Federal Government has rights, but no further. The States were 
free, sovereign, and independent, until these concessions were made. The 
Federal Government became the repository of delegated powers, and there 
they remain for the benefit of the several States. The States in the full 
enjoyment of the powers reserved, are independent within their sphere, and 
subject to no control from the Federal Government. These are my 
opinions, and I believe they agree with the democratic faith. Incidentally 
various subjects have arisen in this body since I have been a member of it, 
and i:pon all these I have recorded my opinions. I know they have been 
at variance, on some occasions, with my party, or rather the party with 
which I act. I will not call it mine : I belong to it. I had hoped that 
the agitation on this question (slavery) was fast dying away. And it 
might ere this have been forgotten, had it not been for the introduction 
. f this unfortunate resolution, which has renewed all the agitation of 
former times, and produced crimination and recrimination, and scenes not 
less violent in their character than those exhibited upon the adoption of 
the Compromise itself. It is unfortunate •, and if iu the inception of a reso- 



360 THE SACRED NESS OF THE UNMON. 

lution of this kind, such are the fruits, aud if such are in a green tree, 
what must they be in a dry ? I apprehend that no earthly good can grow 
out of the adoption of the resolution. The usurpation of the people's 
rights will be manifest. If a modification is to take place in the demo- 
cratic platform, let it take place in a convention of the delegates of the 
people sent there for a political purpose, not for the purpose of legisla- 
tion, but for the formation of certain creeds and embodiments of opinions, 
by which the party is to be regulated in its actions. There is where I wish 
to see such action take place. But further than this I am not prepared 
to go. 



XYII. 

" The Compromise, sir, was the work of able, patriotic, and renowned 
• statesmen. Some of them are no longer in this body. It is with regret, 
sir, that I witness the absence of one who bore an important and conspi- 
cuous part in the accomplishment of that Compromise. I allude to the 
venerable senator from Kentucky (Mr. Clay), who is detained from this 
chamber by sickness, with which he is deeply afflicted. I trust he will 
again resume his place in the Senate. The wisdom of his counsels, the 
brilliancy of his genius, the strength of his will, and the patriotism of his 
heart, never shone brighter than during their manifestation in this 
body in the achievement of that Compromise. But my State has been 
arraigned by a portion of the Union, and of the democratic party, too, 
for making a disposition of a portion of her territory to the detriment of 
Southern interests ; and that I felt. It was not that she was disposed to 
abridge or impair any of the rights of the South. Texas, no doubt, had 
a right to dispose of it. Did not Georgia dispose of her territory to the 
Federal Government ? Did she not sell enough to make the States of 
Alabama and Mississippi ? And have any complaints been made against 
her for it ? And had Texas, who came into this Union as free and as 
independent as Georgia did, no right to dispose of her domain to the 
Federal Government ? She did it, sir ; and I have this to remark, that 
had it been any obstacle to the compromise to the jarring interests of this 
country, and to their reconcilement, I would have been willing that every 
foot of the territory which she claimed, should become a lake of fire and 
brimstone rather than it should have thrown an impediment in the way 
of the peace and the harmony of this Union. 



REPLY TO FOOTE. 361 

XYIII. 

" I voted also for the admission of California. I did it on the acknow- 
ledged and avowed principle of the South : ' Let us alone ; let the people 
regulate their municipal and domestic institutions ; let them alone.' And 
I put it to the candor of honorable Senators from the South, no matter 
how ardent their feelings may have been, whether, if California had made 
application for admission into the Union, with a constitution declaring 
that Slavery should exist, they would not have disregarded all the irregu- 
larities which may have been connected with it, and readily have voted 
for her admission as a slave State ? The same rule which would induce 
me to vote for it in one situation, would constrain me to do so in another. 
I did it. What advantage would have resulted from a delay ? Was there 
any hope for a change in her institutions ? Was there any probability of 
it? No. She came in ; and whatever reproaches are attached to the vote 
I gave, I derive my consolation from the general prosperity and happi- 
ness of my country." 

XIX. 

In this same speech, Houston replied to the charge made by 
Mr. Foote, that the Senator from Texas was given to dema- 
gogisra, and to wire-pulling for the Presidency. As the repli- 
cation has something in it of an auto-biographical significance, 
the reader will be gratified by recurring to what he said on the 
occasion. 

XX. 

'' I was very much edified, and I might say amused, by remarks of the 
honorable gentleman from Mississippi. I cannot but be astonished at 
the temper of the gentleman. I had not intended to say anything 
to excite his ire, because I flatter myself that I am a prudent man, and 
do not like to provoke assaults. I am exceedingly gratified at one thing. 
In the course of his entire tirade, I believe the gentleman did not state a 
single fact. He has indulged in many conjectures in relation to Free- 
soilism, and catering for the Presidency. Why, I should feel that I was 
not only degrading myself, but degrading the nation and the body in which 

16 



362 REBUKE OF DEMAGOGISM. 

I stand, if I would cater to the passions of men, or compromise my prin- 
ciples, for the Presidency. What I have, I have. I wish to make no new 
voyages. I am satisfied with the position which I occupy. What I might 
adventure might be lost. Therefore, I have no petty hankerings after office 
to gratify. Nor have I a.nj party intrigues to enter into. I have no cor- 
respondence on the subject of the Presidency. The world is acquainted 
with what I have said. 

XXI. 

" What I do, they make it a point to know. I should be sorry to sup- 
pose that there could be the least ground for applying to me the term 
'demagogue.' What demagogism was there when I gave unpopular 
votes in this body, when there was no prospect for advancement in popu- 
larity, for I was denounced far and near. What intrigue could I then 
have had, with a party unimportant in the country, when I could have 
gone with the whole South, if I had chosen to sacrifice my own opinions 
on the Oregon question ? Was I playing the ' demagogue ' when I 
refused to sign the Southern Address ? Did I not vote for every one of 
the Compromise measures ? Mr. President, I assure you, I assure the 
Senate, I assure the country, that every insinuation against me of indirect 
plotting, by myself or by my friends, within my knowledge, with one 
party or another — every insinuation that imparts to me any other design 
than that of preserving the government in its purity, and the democratic 
party in its own faith, without an extension of platform, is altogether 
unfounded. Whoever insinuates that I have any intrigue, or any under- 
standing, or any correspondence upon the subject of free-soil, abolition, 
disunion, or secession, insinuates what is utterly unfounded, and without 
the slightest countenance of truth." 

XXII. 

When Kossuth was introduced to the Senate of the United 
States, it may be mentioned that as the martial form of Gen. 
Houston approached Kossuth, there appeared to be a personal 
attraction in the person of the hero of San Jachito. The 
introduction having been made, a brief but expressive dialogue 
ensued. 



INCREASE OF THE ARMY INDIAN POLICY. 363 

XXIII. 

'' Mr. HOUSTON— Sir, you are welcome to the Senate of the United 
States." 

" M. KOSSUTH— I can only wish that I had been as successful as you, 
sir." 

'• HOUSTON — God grant that you may yet be so." 



XXIY. 

On the twenty-nintli of Jannary, 1855, the United States 
Senate having resumed, as in Committee of the Whole, the con- 
sideration of the bill from the House of Representatives, making 
appropriations for the support of the Army for the year end- 
ing the oOth of June, 1856, the pending question being on the 
amendment of Mr. Shields to the amendment of Mr. Hunter 
(which was to provide for two additional Regiments of Regular 
Cavalry and five hundred Rangers), to substitute for that pro- 
vision two Regiments of Infantry, and two of Cavalry, Hous- 
ton spoke upon an increase of the army, and on the Indian policy 
of the government. The chief portions of these speeches are wor- 
thy of preservation — and will be acceptable to every American 
reader. 

XXV. 

'' Before the Senate proceeds to vote upon the adoption of the new policy 
now proposed, I think it would be woll to examine the causes which have 
led to the present condition of affairs, and then to inquire into the best 
means for the restoration of peace upon our Indian frontier. An examina- 
tion of this sort will inform us whether there is any necessity for an 
increase of the military force of the country. I am aware, sir, that in dis- 
cussing subjects which relate to the Indians, or to their rights, I shall com- 
mand but little sympathy from the Senate, and not much fi-om the coun- 
try. They are a people isolated in their interests, and solely dependent 
for protection and justice upon the government of the United States. 



364. MASSACRES OF THE RED MEN. 

How far justice has been accorded to them in the past, or how far it is, in 
all probability, to be awarded to them in the future, is a matter beyond 
speculation. If we are to judge from the past experience of our times, 
we should infer that there is but very little hope of anything being done 
for the Red man ; and we should infer that, in the opinion of his white 
brethren, his doom has already been written and recorded. Mr. President, 
the Indians have been charged with an aggressive and hostile spirit 
towards the whites ; but we find, upon inquiry, that overy instance of that 
sort which has been imputed to them, has been induced and provoked by 
the white man, either by acts of direct aggression upon the Indians, or by 
his own incaution, alluring them to a violation of the security of the 
whites. They have tempted the cupidity of the Indians. If a lawless 
fellow happens to prove vagrant to his band, and throws off all the rules 
and restrictions imposed by the chiefs on their warriors, and chooses to 
involve his nation in a difficulty by taking the life of a white man, if he 
can do so, as he supposes, with impunity, his action is charged to his tribe ; 
but they should not be held responsible. Sir, we have seen thrilling 
accounts of sanguinary massacres, which alarm us at the first blush ; and 
if we are to believe the paragraphs disseminated through the medium of 
the press, we thould suppose, in reality, that the Indian is as barbarous 
as he had ever been, and that all the assaults or massacres, as they are 
termed, are unprovoked and wantonly inflicted on the defenceless white 
man. As an instance of this, let me mention the massacre at Fort 
Laramie, and from that instance you can pretty accurately deduce the 
true condition of other acts of a similar character. "What were the cir- 
cumstances in connection with that case? 



XXVI. 

" During the last summer, some bands of the Sioux nation of Indians 
were encamped within six miles of Fort Laramie. They were in amity 
with the United States, and on terms of good friendship and good feeling 
with the officers of the neighboring fort. A man from a neighboring 
tribe, whose relatives had, a year before, been slaughtered by the troops 
at Fort Laramie, happened to be among these bands of Sioux. Some 
Mormon emigrants passed by the camp of the Indians, and a cow escaped 
from them, made towards the village, and the Mormons pursued her, but 
unsuccessfully. The Indian to whom I have referred, by way of revenge 



SIAUGHTER PROVOKED. 365 

for the loss of his relative, slaughtered the animal. Complaint was made 
at Fort Laramie. The chiefs instantly said that they would see that repa- 
ration was made for the injury which had been done. Was this satisfac- 
tory to the commanding officer ? No, sir ; but he detailed a brevet lieu- 
. tenant, with a company, for the purpose of arresting the Indian. The 
company arrived at the encampment of the Indians with two pieces of 
artillery. Demand was made of the chiefs, but this Indian said to them, 
*I have taken a lodge here ; I am willing to die ; you have nothing to 
do with this matter 5 you have no concern with it ; the responsibility is 
not upon your people, but it is upon me alone.' So soon as this reply was 
given to the lieutenant, he tu-ed and crippled one of the principal chiefs, 
and killed a man. The delinquent still refused to give up. After that 
the chiefs rallied and exhorted the men to commit no outrage ; their influ- 
ence controlled the action of the Indians ; but a drunken interpreter, who 
was calculated to incite the lieutenant to action, caused him, no doubt, to 
fire his cannon. The next thing was that the war-whoop was sounded, 
and the lieutenant and part of his men were killed. The others, dis- 
persed, were pursued by the Indians in hot blood, and every man was 
slaughtered. 

XXYII. 

" This is a succinct narrative of that event. Were the Indians to blame ? 
He who violates a law is the man who is responsible for the consequences 
of that violation. The Indian intercourse laws of the United States, have 
pointed out the manner in which to proceed in such a case. If a citizen 
sustains injury from any tribe, or from an individual of a tribe, informa- 
tion is to be given to the Indian agent for that tribe. He is immediately 
to make a demand upon the chiefs of the nation. If they do not surren- 
der the individual, which, in all probability they would do immediately, 
if they were treated in good faith, deduction is made from their annuities 
for the amount of the injury, and there the matter stops. If no annui- 
ties are due to them, rather than bring on war, the United States Trea- 
sury is responsiVjle to the individual who has sustained loss. These are 
the provisions of the intercourse laws. In this case, did either of the offi- 
cers make a demand on the chiefs ? The chiefs sent an assurance that 
justice would be done, and the individual given up, though he did not 
belong to their band. The officers, unwilling to receive that assurance, 
dispatched a handful of men against several lodges of Indians, and among 



366 INDIAN REVENGE. 

whom there had been some ground of complaint. The consequences 
■which I hare narrated, resulted from this indiscretion and violation of 
law. It was a violation of law, for no demand was made upon the chiefs 
for indemnity, and no response Avas received from them. These gallant 
gentlemen thought they should go there and make war. They are paid 
for it ; 'it is their vocation.' Are such men entiled to sympathy ? Are 
they entitled to respect? But their conduct alarmed the Sioux ; and 
because that tribe proposed to confederate with other tribes, we are asked 
to increase the military force of the country ; forsooth, we are to wage 
war upon the winds, for you might as well do it, as upon the prairie 
Indians. 

XXYIII. 

*•' But this is not all that grew out of that transaction. A clamor is 
raised about the mail party who were destroyed subsequently to that. It 
was very natural to expect that it would be done. The Sioux chief, who 
was wounded on the occasion to which I have referred, was taken to 
Arkansas, and there he expired in consequence of the injury he had 
received. His kindred resolved to revenge his death. The Indian appre- 
ciates the ties of kindred far beyond any white man. They may have 
less intelligence 5 but the chords of nature arc stronger, the sensibilities 
of the heart more lively, than those which stimulate our Christian enlight- 
ened action. It is well known that the grief which resounds through the 
Indian camp, when a warrior or chief expires, or when a relative dies, is 
like the wailing of Egypt. When this chief expired, his friends sought 
for a white man, that they might take vengeance on him — not for those 
who had inflicted the wrong, but whomever they might happen to find among 
the whites. They came first upon the mail party. One, who was not a 
relative of the chief, said to one of his kindred, ' there is a white man, you 
can now take vengeance on him ; you are a coward if you do not do so.' 
He said, * I am no coward ; but if you say it, I will kill him.' Then he 
went and killed two out of the three composing the mail party. 



x:^ix. 

" Now, sir, what had been the condition of the Indian country previous 
to these occurrences? I have been assured by gentlemen who have passed 



COWARDLY TREATMENT OF RED MEN. 36t 

from California to Fort Laramie, a distance of one thousand four hundred 
or one thousand five hundred miles, that they met individuals travel- 
ling alone through that vast region. They passed through a wilder- 
ness of one thousand four hundred, or one thousand five hundred 
miles, unassailed, and without injury from any one. Did this look 
like a desperate feeling on the part of the Indians, when they allowed 
unprotected individuals, sometimes singly, occasionally in small com- 
panies of three or four persons, to pass through their country unmo- 
lested? No, sir. It is some sudden act of wrong and outrage which 
stimulates the Indian to aggression. He has no inducement to it, unless 
he expects great plunder, because he is well aware that if he cultivates 
kind and friendly relations with the whites, he can receive from them 
supplies that he cannot obtain in any other way — things which gratify hi3 
taste for dress, and supply his wants and appetites. For this reason, the 
Indian is always disposed to be in peace and friendship with his white 
neighbors if he can. 

" I have given some illustrations of the so-called Indian outrages. I 
may refer to another one, which, not long since, took place in Oregon, and 
which is given, in some quarters, as a reason why an increase of the army 
is required. I refer to a recent massacre of the Indians at a ferry-house 
in Oregon, as described by the agents and superintendents of that terri- 
tory. A number of miners to the amount of forty, associated together to 
attack a village of seventy Indians, men, women, and children, without 
any means of defence, with only five pieces of fire-arms, pistols, and guns, 
and two of them entirely useless. The officer, who reports the action, 
describes in a most military and elegant style, the manner in which he 
assaulted the village in three divisions. They were entirely successful ; 
killed some sixteen men, killed one squaw, and wounded a couple, and no 
children — that was merciful ! But, sir, they scattered the warriors, who 
were there defenceless, and applied the torch to their wigwams. We are 
told by the gallant gentleman who reported the matter, that the next day 
the Indians were there hovering about the mouldering ashes of their wig- 
wams. This gallant and chivalrous man, wonderful to relate, says he did 
not loose a man in the attack. "Was he not lucky ? [Laughter.] That 
fellow must look out for a brevet ; though I hope he will hardly come 
here claiming bounty land. [Laughter.] 



368 FIVE MILLION'S FOP. BUTCHERING INDIANS. 



XXX. 

" This act is denounced by the agent and superintendent as most cruel 
and barbarous. The poor creatures were willing to do anything and 
everything which was asked of them. They denied every charge that theh- 
malicious enemies had wantonly brought against them ; and the truth of the 
narrative is endorsed by the agent, a man of intelligence. I do not 
know him ; but his repoj-t bears the impress of intelligence and integrity. 



XXXI. 

" Well, sir, these circumstances, it is said, call for an army of three regi- 
ments, or three thousand men. "What are they to cost ? Five millions of 
dollars is the amount which it is proposed to appropriate by the bill which 
was reported by the Senator from Illinois. We are to appropriate 
$5,000,000 to bring on a great Sioux war, to meet a most wonderful con- 
federacy, which, it is said, is forming among the Indians. Why, sir, they 
cannot keep together, because they are starving in little bauds, even in 
those parts of the country where they can command the most game. How 
could they remain embodied for any length of time without supplies, 
without animals, and without food, when their women and children are 
starving? How could they, under such circumstances, remain a mighty 
confederation, to sweep our frontier ? Why, sir, from the display that is 
made, by the terrible cry of alarm, one would think that New Orleans 
itself could hardly be safe, but that the Indians would sweep down the 
Missouri and Mississippi, and carry death, destruction, and .devastation 
in their course ! Are these causes calculated to produce such mighty 
effects? Is it proper that the nation should be involved in a general 
Indian war at this time ? Is it proper that $5,000,000 should be expended 
from the Treasury to begin this war ? If this bo done, what will be the 
consequence ? The Indians will not be embodied to meet you. Your 
troops will hear that in some direction there is a Camanche, or a Kioway, 
or an Osage camp, and they will advance upon it with '• all the pomp and 
circumstance of glorious war.' A morning gun will be fired as a signal 
to rise and prepare for the march. On such an occasion, with the bugle 
Bounding in advance, how beautiful must be the reflection from the arms 
and banners floating in the prairie! That is to be the spectacle which ia 



HOW WE TREAT RED MEN. 369 

to amuse or drive the Indians ahead. They are to meet the Indians on a 
trackless waste. You might as well pursue the course of a ship's keel on 
the ocean, as to pursue the Indians of the prairies. They would disperse, 
and your army would be left there ; and they, perhaps, surrounding you, 
in the distance, and laughing at the glorious pomp with which you were 
marching through their prairies. If you take men there, and make a dis- 
play without efiBciency, you provoke their ridicule and supreme con- 
tempt. 



XXXII. 

" But, Mr. President, the course which has been pursued, since the days 
of William Penn to the present moment, has not been entirely successful 
in conciliating the Indians. Under the management of "Washington, of 
the first Adams, of Madison, of Monroe, of the second Adams, of Jackson, 
and of Polk, we have, with few exceptions, been very successful in main- 
taining peace with them. The suggestions made by our fathers, in rela- 
tion to their civilization and humanization, are exemplified and illustrated 
in the present condition of the southern tribes, who have received the 
greatest benefits of the light shed on them ; and they have responded to 
it by the cultivation of mind, by the development of resources, both phy- 
sical and intellectual, which reflect lustre on their character. Cannot the 
Indian now be influenced in the same way, by the same means ? Have 
we no landmarks to guide us? Have we not experience to teach us? 
Have we not humanity to prompt us to march on in the path which i3 
already laid out before us ? Sir, how different is the policy now pursued 
from what it once was? I must read, for the instruction of the Senate, 
an extract from the last annual report of the Commissioner of Indian 
Affairs, and I beseech your attention to it, because it contains more good 
sense and reflection than I could impart in the same number of words. It 
will be necessary in the examination of this subject, in relation both to 
the Indians and the Army, to see in what manner they harmonize with 
each other, and how far the one is necessary to the success of the other. 
The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in his report to the Secretary of the 
Interior, describes a transaction to which I wish to call attention : 

" ' As heretofore reported to you, an association of persons has under- 
taken to appropriate to their own use a portion of the land ceded by the 
Delawares, fronting on the Missouri river, and south of Fort Leavenworth ; 

16* 



3*10 HO'W OUR OFFICERS TREAT INDIANS. 

have laid out a city thereon, and actually had a public sale of the lots of 
the same on the 9th and 10th of October last. These unlawful proceed- 
ings have not only ta,ken place under the eyes of military officers sta- 
tioned at the fort, but two of them are said to be members of the associa- 
tion, and have been active agents in this discreditable business. Encour- 
aged by these proceedings, and prompted by those engaged in them, 
other persons have gone on other portions of the tract ceded by the Dela- 
wares in trust to the United States, and pretend to have made, and are 
now making, such ' claims ' as they assert will vest in them the lawful 
right to enter the land at the minimum price under the preemption law 
of July 12, 1854.' 



XXXIII. 

*• This is a specimen of the aid and succor afforded hj military com- 
manders to the agents to maintain and preserve peace among the Indians. 
These are the gentlemen to whom the agents look for co-operation in the 
discharge of their duties, and to afford equal protection to the Indians 
against aggressions from the whites, as to the whites against aggressions 
from the Indians. Such a transaction, as is here disclosed, is an act of 
unmitigated infamy in the ofiScers who have lent themselves to it. I 
hope the Executive, in the plenitude of his power, and in the exercise of a 
wise and just discretion, will erase their names from the records of the 
country, and redeem our annals from infamy so blackening as this. 
Think, sir, of an officer wearing an American sword, adorned with Ameri- 
can epaulets, the emblem of office and the insignia of honor and manly 
pride, degrading himself by a violation of the faith of his Government, 
rendering him a disgrace to the uniform which he wears, and the earth 
upon which he treads ! 



XXXIY. 

" It will be recollected that the Delaware Indians own one million eight 
hundred thousand acres of land. They ceded one million three hundred 
thousand acres to the Government of the United States for $10,000, 
reserving to themselves the land on which the city referred to has been 
laid out, ou the banks of the Missouri. They confided five hundred thou- 



THE INDIANS OF KANSAS. 3tl 

sand acres to the Government of the United States, as they could not 
themselves dispose of it, except to the Government ; and, believing that 
it would bo a source of wealth and independence to them, they have 
granted it to the Government, in trust, to be sold by it, the right of pos- 
Bession remaining in them until it should be disposed of. It appears, 
from the commissionei^ report, that persons had gone and taken posses- 
sion of this land. If they have not done so, they ought to be vindicated 
against the charge. I regard it as authentic and oflScial, and until it is 
controverted, I have nothing to extenuate ; nor do 1 set down aught in 
malice. Justice requires me to state the facts. 



XXXY. 

" Mr. President, I said to the Senate, on a former 'occasion, that 
eighteen tribes of Indians had been located by this Government within the 
limits of the present Territories of Nebraska and Kansas, and that most of 
them bad been removed there from the east of the Mississippi. They were 
located there under the faith of solemn pledges, that while grass grew, or 
water ran, or the earth brought forth its fruits, they should remain on the 
lands assigned to them, unless they choose to abandon them ; and that 
they should not be included within the boundaries of any State or Terri- 
tory. Notwithstanding this, these Indians were embraced within the 
Nebraska and Kansas bill. They were taken in — yes, sir, as strangers 
are sometimes ' taken in.' What is now their condition, and what must it 
be in after time?'' 



XXXYI. 

Here, Senator Houston having read an extract from the 
recent report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in which he 
describes, with great fidelity and justice, the condition of the 
Indians in Kansas Territory, expressing his belief and hope that 
their complete civilization may be effected, then proceeded to 
say that it is the violation of treaties, and the bad faith of the 
white man, and his aggressive course, that cause the inquietude 
of the Red Men. 



372 HOW HOUSTON TREATED THE INDIANS. 

XXXYII. 

" There is a remecly ; and that remedy must be applied, or the Indians 
exterminated, at an espense ten times beyond what would civilize in half 
a century, every Red man who walks upon the soil of America. I have 
seen tribes rise from a state of barbarism to a coiMition in which they are 
as civilized in their institutions, in their religion, and in their social 
refinement and habits, as citizens of the United States, and all this has 
been done within half a century. These things are as possible now as at 
any former time ; and a sum, very easily calculated, less than the amount 
estimated as necessary to raise these troops and subsist them for one year, 
would civilize every Indian on the continent, set him down on a piece of 
land, and give him ' a local habitation and a name.' Is it not worth an 
attempt ? Is it not worth accomplishment ? Sir, let me give you some 
experience in relation to Indians. The United States have regiments in 
Texas, and Texas is considered; by some, as a burden on the Treasury. 
Texas, it is said, exhausts the Army of the United States, and withdraws 
them from more eligible stations to protect her frontier. I will show you, 
sir, how that is. • In 1842 and 1843 Texas had a war on hand which had 
been brought about by an exterminating policy proclaimed by a new 
Administration, and peace was not restored until 1843, when the head of 
the Government of Texas went about the work of their civilization. He 
went into the wilderness, on the prairies, and there met the Indians, who 
would not trust themselves Vv'Ithin the timbered land, nor near any place 
where there was a possibility of ambuscade. A treaty was there made, 
which not only stayed the tomahawk and the scalp in g-knife, but preserved 
peace and safety on the frontier until 1849. We were for six years with- 
out massacre, without conflagration, without prisoners being taken. Not 
a Texan was killed in that time by the Indians. One man was killed in 
the Indian country, but whether by the Mexicans or Indians was a doubt- 
ful question ; at any rate he was not scalped. 



XXXYIII. 

" Now, feir, how was this done ? By what means ? By pursuing a 
policy which had been initiated in 1836, but was disrupted in 1838, which' 
brought a war upon the entire borders of that young Republic. The old 



HOW TEXAS TREATED INDIANS. 3*73 

policy was re-established in 1843. Resistance was made to it, as there was 
to every attempt to consolidate a Government. There was an attempt 
on the part of some lawless men, to resist everything like order and 
organization, and throw the Government into anarchy and misrule ; but 
they failed. These Indians had been our enemies ; they had been exas- 
perated by unprovoked aggressions upon them ; but the proper concilia- 
tory disposition soon won their regard and afiection. What was the 
expense of all this ? I am almost afraid to state it, for I fear it will not 
be credited when we see the enormous estimates now made for the expense 
of treaties with the Indians. Sir, every dollar given to the Executive of 
Texas, to consummate these treaties, to feed the Indians, to make presents, 
was annually $10,000 ; and he rendered vouchers for the last cent. For 
this sum, peace was accomplished and maintained, the safety and protec- 
tion of our frontiers insured, and the Indians became pacific and happy. 



XXXIX. 

" When Texas was annexed to the United States, these Indians, on 
account of faith having been maintained with them by the then Executive 
of Texas, refused to meet and confer with the commissioners sent to them 
by the President of the United States, until they had the sanction of the 
Government of Texas ; and the symbols of confidence were put in the 
hands of the commissioners before the Indians would treat with them. A 
treaty was then negotiated. What was the history of it? One of the 
commissioners — a noble and gallant gentleman, who afterwards fell at 
Chepultapec, in Mexico, at the head of his regiment — was too much indis- 
posed to render any assistance. His co-commissioner assumed the whole 
business •, and what did he do ? He had the Indians' names signed with a 
mark on a sheet of paper, had it attested, and brought it on here. He 
made large promises to the Indians ; he assured them of an annuity of 
$14,000, to be paid annually, at a certain trading-house ; but when he 
wrote his treaty (for he did not write it until he came here, when he 
appended to it the sheet containing the signatures), it contained a provi- 
sion that they should receive barely $14,000 as a full acquittance. It cost 
$60,000 to negotiate the treaty, as the records of the Treasury show. 
This is a sum equal to the price of six years' peace between the Indians 
and the Government of Texas. Perhaps, however, the people of Texas 
were better then than now. Since that time, they have been under the 



374 HOW OUR AGENTS TREAT INDIANS. 

Government of the United States. I simply state facts. I leave the infer- 
ence to others. 

XL. 

" Sir, if the agent appointed by Mr. Polk, who has been restored by the 
present executive — it is a bright spot in his Administration, and I com- 
mend him for it — had never been removed, there would have been peace 
to this daj on the borders of Texas ; but as soon as the Indian agent who 
was appointed to succeed him went there, he must forsooth establish a 
rancho : he must have a farm. The Indians who had been settled down 
there from 1843 to 1849, had been furnished by the Government of Texas 
with implements of husbandry, with seeds of every description, and they 
were cultivating their little farms. They were comfortable and independ- 
ent. They were living in perfect peace. If you can get Indians located, 
and place their wives and children within your cognizance, you need 
never expect aggression from them. It is the Indian who has his wife in 
security, beyond your reach, who, like the felon wolf, goes to a distance 
to prey 9n some flock, far removed from his den ; or, like the eagle, who 
seeks his prey from the distance, and never from the flocks about his 
eyrie. The agent to whom I have referred, lost two oxen from his rancho 
where he kept his cattle. He went to the officer in command of Fort Bel- 
knap, got a force from him, and then marched to those Indians sixty miles 
distant, and told them they must pay for the oxen. They said, ' "We 
know nothing about your oxen ; our people are here ; here are our women 
and children ; we have not killed them ; we have not stolen them ; we 
have enough to eat ; we are happy ; we have raised corn ; we have sold 
corn ; we have corn to sell ; we have sold it to your people, and they 
have paid us for it, and we are happy.' The agent and the military gen- 
tlemen scared off the Indians from the limits of Texas, and drove them 
across the Red Rivdt to the Wichita mountains, taking every horse and 
animal they had, to pay for the two oxen. This was done by an accre- 
dited agent of the Government, and by an officer who deserved but little 
credit. Are such things tolerable, and to be tolerated in the present age 
and condition of our government ? 

XLI. 

" What was the consequence ? Those Indians felt themselves agrieved. 



INDIAN CHARACTERISTICS. 3*15 

They saw that a new regime had come ; they had the era of peace and 
plenty, and now they were expelled by a different influence. They felt 
grateful for the benign effects of the first policy towardsthem, and that 
only exasperated them to a greater extent against the second ; and they 
began to make incursions, ready to take vengeance on any white men 
they might meet in the neighborhood, and slay whoever they might find. 
They made their forays from the opposite side of the Red River, from the 
Wichita mountains, and came like an avalanche upon our unprotected 
citizens. There is one fact showing how your interference with the 
Indians within her limits has injured Texas. There is another fact in con- 
nection with the Indian policy of Texas which I shall mention. How was 
it with the "Wichita Indians ? Texas sought to conciliate them ; they 
lived beyond her borders, and made incursions from the limits of the 
IJnited States into Texas, while she was an independent Republic. She 
did everything in her power to bring about peace between them, and, 
through the friendly Indians, was pacifying them. One of their chiefs, 
with his wife and child and twelve men, came to Fort Belknap, some one 
hundred, and fifty or two hundred miles west of the fort, at Hamilton's 
Valley. Property had been stolen by Indians. It was not known which 
of thirteen different tribes had taken it 5 for outlaws occasionally con- 
gregated from each, half a dozen of them stealing off from their tribes, 
■without the influence of their chiefs operating upon them. They were 
outlaws, careless of the destiny of their tribes, and reckless of the crimes 
which they might commit, so long as they could gratify their cupidity and 
recompense their daring. These men had taken some property. Dra- 
goons came on in the direction of Red River, and reached Fort Belknap. 
So soon as they arrived, the officer said to this chief : ' Sir, I retain you 
as a prisoner. It is true, you came under a white flag ; but I am an 
officer ; I have the power ; I take you prisoner, and you must stay here a 
prisoner until the horses are brought back. Your men must stay, too, 
except one, -whom I will send to your tribe with the intelligence of 
the fact.' The chief said ; * My tribe have not committed the robbery ; 
it is a great distance from me ; it is in another direction. I come from 
the rising sun ; that is towards the setting sun ; I was far from it ; you 
are between me and it ; I did not do it.' 'But,' said the officer, 'you are 
a prisoner.' The officer put him in the guard-house. Imprisonment is 
eternal infamy to an Indian. A prairie Indian would rather die a thou- 
sand deaths than submit to the disgrace of imprisonment. You may 
wound and mutilate him as you please, you may crush every limb in the 



376 IGNORANCE OF THE INDIAN CHARACTER. 

body of a prairie Indian, and if he can make no other resistance, he will 
spit defiance at you when you come within his reach. This chief, meditat- 
ing upon his deep disgrace, knowing that he was irreparably dishonored, 
unless he could wash out his stains with blood, resolved that night that 
he would either die a freeman, or rescue himself from dishonor. He rose 
in the night. He would not leave his wife and child in the hands of his 
enemy ; so he took his knife, and stabbed his squaw and little one to the 
heart. Not a groan was heard, for he well knew where to apply the poig- 
nard. He went and shot down the sentinel, rushed upon the superior 
officers, was shot, and perished like a warrior, in an attempt to wipe a 
stain from his honor. His men fled and returned to their tribe, but it was 
to bring blood, carnage, and conflagration upon our settlements. They 
came not again as brothers to smoke the calumet of peace, but with brands 
in their hands to set fire to our houses. Contrast that with the previous 
years ; contrast it with the harmony which had before existed, and you 
see the lamentable result of sending, as Indian agents and army oflBcers 
to take charge of the Indians, men who know nothing about the Indian 
character. 

XLII. 

" Well, sir, how can Texas expect peace, how can she expect protection 
to her citizens ? Not from your army. It has never given her protec- 
tion ; it is incompetent to give protection ; and it is a reproach to the 
country. I will not say anything personally unkind of the officers who 
command, for they are gentlemen ; but I say they know nothing about 
the Indians, and I shall prove it. Texas deserves protection, and she can 
have it if a rational efi"ort be made to give it to her, but not by your 
troops. AVhat sort of protection can she expect from hostile Indians when 
the commanding officer of that military department, a gallant gentleman, 
who has borne himself nobly in the heat of battle, skillful in design, bold 
and gallant in execution, and in all the martial arts replete, but unskilled 
amongst the Indians. He has issued an order that no Indian should go 
within twenty miles of a fortress on the frontier of Texas. The Indians 
think, ' Very well, you say the Indians shall not come within twenty miles 
of your forts, and we say your men shall not come within twenty miles of 
us, or we will shoot them.' That is a pretty good notion for an Indian ; it is 
very natural. The boundary is fixed by the white man, and the Indian 
lives up to it. Well, sir, there is a remedy for all this, and it is very easy 



HOW TO HAVE PEACE WITH THE INDIANS. 3tt 

to apply it ; but how are we circumstanced there ? It is supposed by some 
that we are deriving great aid from the Army, and that the greatest por- 
tion of the disposable forces of the United States is in Texas, and protect- 
ing it ? How can they protect us against the Indians when the cavafry have 
not horses which can trot faster than active oxen, and the infantry dare 
not go out in any hostile manner for fear of being shot and scalped ! Can 
they pursue a party who pounce down on a settlement and take property, 
and reclaim that property ? Have they ever done it ? Did the old 
rangers of Texas ever fail to do it, when they were seated on their Texas 
ponies ? They were men of intelligence and adroitness in regard to the 
Indian character, and Indian warfare. Do you think a man is fit for such 
service who has been educated at West Point Academy, furnished with 
rich stores of learning ; more educated in the science of war than any 
general who fought through the Revolution, and assisted in achieving 
our independence ? Are you going to take such gentlemen, and suppose 
that by intuition they will understand the Indian character? Or do you 
suppose they can track a turkey, or a deer in the grass of Texas," or could 
they track an Indian, or would they know whether they were tracking a 
wagon or a carriage ? [Laughter.] Not at all, sir. We wish, in the first 
place, to have men suited to the cu'cumstance. Give us agents who are 
capable of following out their instructions, and who understand the Indian 
character. Give us an army, gentlemen, who understand not only the 
science of command, but have some notions of extending justice and pro- 
tection to the Indian, against the aggression of the whites, while they 
protect the whites against aggressions from the Indians. Then, q,nd not 
till then, will you have peace. 



XLIII. 

" How is this to be done ? Withdraw your army. Have five hundred 
cavalry, if you will, but I would rather have two hundred and fifty Texas 
rangers (such as I could raise) , than five hundred of the best cavalry now 
in service. I would have one thousand infantry, so placed as to guard 
the United States against Mexico, and five hundred for scouting purposes. 
I would have five trading-houses from the Rio Grande to the Red River 
for intercourse with the Indians. I would have a guard of twenty-five 
men out of an infantry regiment, at each trading house, who should be 
vigilant and always on the alert. Cultivate intercourse with the Indians. 



378 HOW TO CIVILIZE INDIANS. 

Show them that you have comforts to exchange for their peltries : bring 
them around you ; domesticate them ; familiarize them with civilization. 
Let them see that you are rational beings, and they will become rational 
in imitation of you ; but take no whisky there at all, not even for the 
oflBcers, for fear their generosity should let it out. Do this, and you will 
have peace with the Indians. Whenever you convince an Indian that he 
is dependent on you for comforts, or for what he deems luxuries or elegan- 
ces of life, you attach him to you. Interest, it is said, governs the world, 
and it will soon ripen into affection. Intercourse and kindness will win 
the fiercest animal on earth, except the hyena, and its spots and nature 
cannot be changed. The nature of an Indian can be changed. He 
changes with change of circumstances, and rises into the dignity of a 
civilized being. If you war against him, it takes a generation or two to 
regenerate his race, but it can be done. I would have fields around the 
trading houses. I would encourage the Indians to cultivate them. Let 
them see how much it adds to their comfort ; how it insures to their wives 
and. children abundant subsistence, and then you win the Indian over to 
civilization ; you charm him, and he becomes a civilized man. 

XLIY. 

" Sir, while people are seeking to civilize and Christianize men on the 
banks of the Ganges, or the Jordan, or in Burrampootah, why should not 
the same philanthropic influence be extended through society, and be 
exerted in behalf of the American Indians ? Is not the soul of an Ameri- 
can Indian, in the prairie, worth as much as the soul of a man on the 
Ganges, or in Jerusalem ? Surely it is. Then let the American Govern- 
ment step forward ; let it plant the standard of regeneration and civiliza- 
tion among the Indians, and it will command the cooperation of the 
citizens in their philanthropic efforts. I am willing to appeal to the 
venerable and distinguished Senator from Michigan, who knows what an 
Indian is, and what his disposition is, perhaps m,ore thoroughly than I do 
myself. To him would I defer, but to no other man, for a certain and 
intimate knowledge of the Indian character. 

XLY. 

" There is another point in connection with the dealings of the Govern- 



PRESENT SYSTEM OF WARFARE. 3T9 

mcnt with the Texas Indians to which I will advert. There are Caman- 
ches of the woods, and the Curaanches of the prairie. The Texas Indians 
do not receive their annuities in Texas, but they are brought into Kansas, 
a great distance from us, where they receive the munificence of the 
Government in their annuities, on the east of the P^ed River and the 
Arkansas. What is the consequence ? They believe Texas is not their 
friend, or that the Federal Government, from then- crude notions of it, 
would pay them in Texas, and would not make them travel over rivers, 
and through trackless prairies, to receive their presents. They return to 
Texas, not with feelings of respect for the benefits they receive, but with 
contempt. This is bad policy. You should distribute your presents to 
the Texas Indians within the limits of Texas. Her territory is broad 
enough ; her domain is fertile enough 5 her character is high enough to 
justify you in doing so. She has done much for herself — more than this 
Government has ever done for her. In order to treat with the Indians 
propL'rly, as I have said, you should take away your troops, except the 
portion I have stated. The Indians, with the exception of the Osages, 
Kiowas and Kaws are disposed to be friendly, I believe. As to the dis- 
affection of the Sioux, I look on it only as an uprising to resist aggres- 
sion. They were fired on by artillery and small arms, without provoca- 
tion, and it is but natural that they should resist. Theirs is not a 
confederation to assail the whites, but to protect themselves. I justify 
them in doing it. I am sorry there is a necessity for it ; but if I were 
among them, and. they proposed a confederacy to repel cruelty and 
butchery, I would join them 5 and he would be a dastard who would not. 
When gentlemen speak of a war upon the Indians, have they considered 
the consequences? You may succeed in killing their women and 
children, but it is a remarkable fact that you kill but very few of their 
warriors. Those who march with martial display upon the Indians, find 
them to-night at one point at dark ; they may see the smoke of their fires ; 
and at dawn to-morrow they will be fifty or seventy miles away, with 
their caravans and every child and woman, not even a dog being left 
behind. What army that you could send of three thousand men, or any 
other number, could affect anything by making war upon the Indians? 
Why, sir, it would be like the redoubtable ex'ploit of the celebrated king 
of France, who, " with forty thousand men marched up a hill, and then 
marched down again.'' [Laughter.] Yes, sir, that I predict would be 
the history of such a campaign. 



380 Houston's views op civilization. 

XLYI. 

" To accomplish the object here contemplated, it is proposed to spend 
$5,000,000. As I have said before, that amount of money would civilize 
every Indian on the contiment, if you sent men of intelligence and 
capacity among them to do it. I have been delighted with the reports 
which I have had the opportunity of glancing at, accompanying the 
annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. One from a gentle- 
man who now occupies a seat in the other House [Mr. Whitfield] grati- 
fied me exceedingly. I have had the pleasure of seeing him but once 
since my arrival. I knew him, when a youth, in Tennessee, and he has 
more than met my expectations, though then they were not indifferent. 
He has proved himself to be a man of fine perceptions, of excellent judg- 
ment, and of good heart. He has capacity to treat with and to reclaim 
the Indians ; and, I doubt not, that he and other gentlemen who could be 
associated with him, could go to the Indians, with five hundred troops, if 
you please — not march through the Indian country, but send word to the 
chiefs ; let them know they had a force, and there is not a chief, who has 
had any relations with the United States, but would come forward wil- 
lingly, make treaties, and maintain them in good faith. But you must 
establish trading houses ; you rnust protect them, and then you may com- 
mand the Indians absolutely, and you will have no murders uj)on your 
roads. Sir, would it not be much wiser to send a few wagons with 
presents than to send an army ? Would not the object be effected much 
sooner by sending commissioners with presents? The Executive and 
Senate are the treaty-making power, and all that is necessary for Congress 
to do, is to make an appropriation for the purpose. Would it not be 
much easier to take presents to the Indians, and would not the object of 
attaining and preserving peace be much sooner effected in this way than 
by an army ? While you were clothing and equipping your army, and 
marching it there, the Indians might kill half the people on the frontier. 
Your army would have to march thousands of miles to reach them ; but 
commissioners could go quietly along, with four or five hundred troops, 
or as many as might be necest-ary ; I would leave that to their discretion ; 
I would select men of capacity for fighting as well as for treating. Send 
such men, and there will be no trouble in bringing about peace. My life 
upon it, $5,000,000 would suffice to civilize every Indian who has ever 
been in treaty with the United States, and settle him in a quiet, comforta- 
ble home. 



IMPOLICY OF INCREASING THE ARMY. 381 

XLYII. 

*' Some time^ance, the present agent in Texas was ordered to lay off a 
section of country in that State for the use of the Indians. He did so. 
He said to the fierce Camanches, * Come here, my brothers, and settle 
down.' They have done so. The Indians to whom I before alluded, who 
were driven off by the former agent, after robbing them of their horses, 
upon the assurances given at the return of the present worthy and intelli- 
gent agent, faithful to his trust, came back in perfect confidence, and set 
themselves to building their houses to shelter their women, old men, and 
children, while the warriors went out to kill game. There they are. The 
southern Camanches went within the border, and said, 'Let us settle;' 
but they were immediately told, through the influence of the army, I 
suppose, that they must not settle there. I saw, not long since, a letter 
from a most intelligent gentleman, who said that the oflScer at Fort Bel- 
knap, with three companies of rangers, and two of regulars, was daily 
expecting to make a descent on the poor Indians who had been settled 
there by the agent, under the pledges of the Government, which promised 
them that they should have a country where they should throfe away the 
arts of the wild and the Red man, and become domestic, agricultural, and 
civilized in their pursuits. They have acquiesced in that policy of the 
Government, but are in constant dread lest the military gentleman in 
command of the fort, in order to gain laurels and acquire glory, and do 
honor to his profession, may make a descent with the regulars and volun- 
teers, or rangers, upon the poor Indians. If intelligence of such a descent 
should arrive, I should not be surprised. I shall be distressed, to be sure ; 
but it will only be one of a thousand distresses which I have felt at the 
wrongs inflicted on the Indians. 



XLYIII. 

"Now, sir, is it politic to increase the regular force of the United 
States? To govern a country well, where intelligence predominates over 
selfishness and interest, I think the smaller the army is the better. I have 
had some experience in that. It is very well to take care of arms and 
ordinance stores, and army stores, which would be useful in time of war. 
It is necessary, I think, to have an army for that purpose. You may have 
as great a stock of science as you please ; but it does not follow that you 



382 WHAT THE ARMY SHOULD BE. 

are bound fo make an officer of every gentleman you educate at "West 
Point. I do not think it would be wise policy to extend the army to suit 
the establishment of the Military Academy, but rather the Military 
Academy to the interests and exigencies of the counny. That is my 
opinion of the army. The nominal number of the army is fourteen thou- 
sand. There is not a vacancy, I presume, for an officer in the whole sor- 
vice. According to the data I have before me, and the items I have given, 
I suppose there are about four thousand five hundred men in the service. 
To make the actual number of fourteen thousand complete, you would 
have to make the nominal force three times fourteen thousand. Let the 
head of the department show that they can keep this establishment per- 
fect before they would go to ingrafting new limbs on it, in its present 
imperfect condition. Let the trunk be sound before you graft it. I know 
that the officers will never be less than the establishment ; it shows that it 
is too large, and ought rather to be reduced. Whenever we see that the 
present establishment is kept in order, and the requisite number of men 
to make it complete always in the service, it will commend itself to con- 
sideration ; and if a greater amount of force, or a larger establishment, 
be necessary, it would be acceded to. I do not, however, now see any 
necessity for it. If you increase it, it will never get less. We know that, 
even* when the army is increased in time of war, there is difficulty.in reduc- 
ing it to a peace establishment afterwards. It has always been the case, 
and always will be, that a man, by holding an office temporarily, acquires 
a claim to it which is enforced by relatives and friends ; and the army 
thereby will become an eye-sore to the people, and a carbuncle upon the 
body politic. 

XLIX. 

"Sir, in the course of my remarks I have said some things which might 
seem to bear upon the officers of the army as a class. My partialities for 
military men, and for gentlemen of the army, are of a character not to 
be doubted. I know their high-toned feeling, their honorable bearing, 
and their chivalry ; and when I commented upon some of them, I only 
spoke of such as brought themselves within the purview of my remarks 
by impropriety of conduct, deserving the reprobation of every man who 
appreciates honorable feelings, integrity and truthfulness. As a class, 
however, I admire and respect them. I have experienced their hospitali- 
ties. Once I enjoyed their association with pleasure ; and my recollec- 



CLOSE OF THIS GREAT SPEECH. 883 

tions of early habits, formed in their companionship, always mark a ver- 
dant spot in memory's waste. It is only the guilty and the culpable thai 
I condemn. 

Six, I believe' the honorable chairman of the Committee on Military 
Afi'airs has withdrawn that portion of the amendment relating to the 
appointment of three commissioners to treat with the Indians. But, Mr. 
President, if we wish to do good to the Indians, we have it in our power ; 
if we wish to destroy them, we can starve them out. If we intend to save 
them, we can do so by appealing to their best feelings. There is one path- 
way to an Indian's heart. If you show him that comforts and benefits are 
to result to his wife and children, you may command him absolutely, and 
he yields implicitly. He has no opposing thought to their interest. I 
have always seen that if you could impress an Indian with the conviction 
that comfort and security would inure to his squaw and papooses, from 
the adoption of a particular policy, he would submit to it. My colleague 
[Mr. Rusk] knows that this is the way to the heart of an Indian. The 
proudest warrior is humiliated at the thought of his wife and little ones 
being in the -least uncomfortable. Whenever an Indian intends to conci- 
liate the whites, he brings his family and settles as near as he can to a 
fort or agency, and says, ' Here are the hostages I give you for my fidelity 
to you ; if I do wrong, I know they will sufter ; they are dearer to me 
than my life.' The Indians can be brought around trading-houses. 



L. 

" I have lost all hope of the stations in Texas doing any good. I would 
not have more than twenty-five men at a trading-house to give protection, 
in the event of any sudden ebullition among the Indians of a violent 
character. It would be entirely accidental if such a necessity happened 
around' the trading-houses, as to require protection to be given to the 
caravans emigrating to California and Oregon. I would encourage the 
Indians in the arts of peace. You need no armies ; you need no Indian 
allies to butcher them. All you have to do is to maintain your faith in 
carrying out the treaties which have been made, and not directly or indi- 
rectly encourage men to violate every principle of honor and humanity, 
and deride even faith itself." 



384 THE CLAIMS OF THERED MEN. 

LI. 

Such was the noblest defence of the Red men of America, 
ever pronounced in the Senate of the United States. It was 
listened to with interest, but it produced little effect upon the 
action of the Senate. The poor Red man has had few friends 
on this continent ; while the African race have, for a quarter 
of a century, been the exciting topic of noisy sympathy, and 
inflammatory appeals. And yet, who will pretend to compare 
the wrongs of the Africans with the outrages that have been 
perpetrated upon the Aborigines ? The former were brought 
hither from a land of barbarism and Pagan darkness, to be 
elevated in the scale of social life more rapidly than four millions 
of men have ever been elevated, in the history of the world. 
They may be called adventurers, having no prescriptive right to 
the soil. But the Indian was the original possessor of the soil. 
He received this broad continent from the hands of his Creator. 
He has been driven from it by invasion ; and what the white 
man's rifle, and the white man's fire-water failed to accom- 
plish in his extermination, has been made up by treachery and 
fraud. 

Houston has always been a friend of the Red man ; and in 
this respect, there has been no variation in his conduct. This 
country will one day wake up to the atrocities and inhumanity 
we have inflicted upon the Aborigines. Houston's long efforts 
in their behalf will then stamp him as the philanthropist of the 
age. Then, too, will the following eloquent words of Charles 
Sprague be dragged forth from the Ubrary, and printed in letters 
of gold. 

LII. 

"Not many generations ago, where you now sit, circled with all that 
exalts and embellighes civilized life, the rank thistle nodded in the wind, 



SPRAGUe's INDIAN LAMENT. 385 

and the wild fox dug his hole unscared. Here lived and loved another 
race of beings. Beneath the same sun that rolls over your heads, 
the Indian hunter pursued the panting deer ; gazing on the same moon 
that smiles for you, the Indian lover vroocd his dusky mate. Here the 
wigwam blaze beamed on the tender and helpless, the council fire glared 
on the wise and daring. Now they dipped their noble limbs in your sedgy 
lakes, and now they paddled the light canoe along your rocky shores. 
Here they warred ; the echoing whoop, the bloody grapple, the defying 
death-song, all were here ; and when the tiger strife was over, here curled 
the smoke of peace. Here, too, they worshiped ; and from many a dark 
bosom went up a pure prayer to the Great Spirit. He had not written 
His laws for them on tables of stone, but He had traced them on the 
tables of their hearts. The poor child of Nature knew not the God of 
revelation, but the God of the universe he acknowledged in everything 
around. He beheld Him in the star that sunk in beauty behind his lonely 
dwelling, in the sacred orb that flamed on him from His mid-day throne, 
in the flower that snapped in the morning breeze, in the lofty pine that 
defied a thousand whirlwinds; in the timid warbler that never left its 
native grove, in the fearless eagle, whose untiring pinion was wet in the 
clouds ; in the worm that crawled at his feet, and in his own matchless 
form, glowing with a spark of that light, to whose mysterious source he 
bent, in humble, though blind adoration. 



LIIl. • 

" And all this has passed away. Across the ocean came a pilgrim bark, 
bearing the seeds of life and death. The former were sown for you, the 
latter sprang up in the path of the simple native. Two hundred years 
have changed the character of a great continent, and blotted forever from 
its face, a whole, peculiar people. Art has usurped the bowers of nature, and 
the anointed children of education have been too powerful for the tribes 
of the ignorant. Here and there a stricken few remain, but how unlike 
their bold, untamed, untamable progenitors ! The Indian of falcon glance, 
and lion bearing, the theme of the touching ballad, the hero of the pathe- 
tic tale, is gone ! and his degraded oflspring crawl upon the soil where 
he walked in majesty, to remind us how miserable is man, when the foot 
of the conqueror is on his neck. 

n 



386 THE FATE OF THE RED MAN 



LIV. 

" As a race they have withered from the land. Their arrows are bro- 
ken, their springs are dried up, their cabins are in the dust. Their council- 
fire has long since gone out on the shore, and their war-cry is fast dying 
out to the untrodden West. Slowly and sadly they climb the distant 
mountains, and read theb doom in the setting sun. They are shrinking 
before the mighty tide which is pressing them away ; they must soon hear 
the roar of the last wave, which will settle over them for ever. Ages 
hence the inquisitive white man, as he stands by some growing city, will 
ponder on the structure of their disturbed remains, and wonder to what 
manner of person they belonged. They will Uve only in the songs and 
chronicles of their exterminators. Let these be faithful to their rude vir- 
tues as men, and pay due tribute to their unhappy fate as a people." 



THE CAUCUS SYSTEM. 38T 



SECTION TWENTY-TWO. 



HOUSTON AT HOME. 



I. 

One of the greatest evils which this country has suffered for 
the last twenty years, has been the " Caucus System." The 
Caucus has governed our political world. It has been our 
king — our tyrant. Begiijning with each local district and 
ward, where there were but few voters, it has extended up to 
the municipalities, counties, cities, and States. From the 
States, it has extended itself over the whole length and breadth 
of the Confederation. Hence we have witnessed the strange 
and disgraceful spectacle of the nomination of men to office, for 
districts, wards, towns, cities, counties, States, and even for the 
Presidential office, by the mere force of political and party 
machinery, under the lowest and most degrading forms. 

II. 

In old times — say forty or fifty years ago — things were done 
differently. The Legislators of States, who were going out of 
office, nominated State officers ; and a retiring Congress nomi- 
nated the next President. This system was far better than the 
one which took its place. Both have been impositions and 
usurpations upon the intelligence and the rights of the Ameri- 
can people. They have resulted in giving us several Presidents 



dbO PERNICIOUS ACTION OF CAUCUSES, 

whom the people would never have chosen, if they could have 
had an opportunity of voting for anybody else ; and we have 
suffered the natural results of that kind of policy. 



III. 

By this system, we were saddled with the nomination of seve- 
ral Presidents, who had no fair claim to the high position to 
which they were elevated. Such men as Henry Clay, Daniel 
Webster, and Lewis Cass, were overlooked ; and such men as 
Gen. Harrison — a very good man — and Gen. Taylor — another 
good man — but both entirely incompetent to the duties of the 
Presidential office, were raised to positions of influence and 
power, without the ability to administer the affairs of the 
Nation. 

IV. 

The most lamentable instance in our history, in illustration of 
this state of things, was the nomination of Frank Pierce. It is 
perfectly certain that not one hundred people in the United 
States had the slightest suspicion that this Concord politician 
would ever be nominated for the Presidency. The evils 
of this " Caucus System " were fully developed by his nomina- 
tion ; and the country has grown so sick of the consequences, 
that hereafter we shall most likely take better care of our 
national affairs. 

We now feel, as Americans, that we can no longer afford to 
risk the fortunes of the country, upon the hazards of this faro- 
bank of party and caucus nomination. We think the time has 
come when, if a Presidential Chief is to be chosen to preside 
over the affairs of the Nation, the People of the Country should 
have something to say in the choice. King Caucus is dead — the 



tyrant has been dragged out and executed. Hereafter, the 
American People will determine who shall be their President. 

Y. 

Sam Houston has always acted upon this system. He has 
never bowed his neck, nor his judgment, to party intrigues, nor to 
corrupt Caucuses. He has despised and abhorred both. The 
records of the fact may be found in his whole life. His earliest 
achievements were bent upon driving foreign invaders from our 
soil. His later efforts were expended upon the construction of 
a new and independent Anglo-Saxon Republic in the forests, 
and on the prairies of Texas. His last efforts have been to pre- 
serve, unimpaired, the union of these States ; and, therefore, he 
is the choice of millions of the American people, for the highest 
office in their gift. 

YI. 

He has been a Democrat all his life ; having been trained, 
from the beginning, in the school of Jackson. 

He fought through the Second War with England, where 
he won a brilliant fame. He never was nominated for an 
office to which he was not elected. He is the only American, 
whose name is known, who has, in dealing with the Red men 
of the forests, gained their affection and confidence, while he 
commanded the respect of white men. He has penetrated the 
forests, and lived in the wildernesses of America, where he has 
learned all the mysteries of frontier life. 

He has bled in the cause of two Republics. 

YII. 

He has been the Founder, as well as the chieftain of a noble 



390 HIS FAMILY AND HOME. 

Republic, and when that Republic had established its indepen- 
dence, he brought it as an offering,, and laid it upon the Federal 
altar. 

The whole force of our Republic was expended upon the cap- 
ture of Santa Anna ; and the two best Generals of the Ameri- 
can Army were nominated for the Presidency of the United 
States, because they defeated the Mexican Dictator. Houston 
not only defeated him, but captured him ; and by paralyzing his 
power, at the time, gave life and vigor to a new commonwealth. 

Houston has been the champion of that great movement 
which promises, at last, to redeem the American Nation from 
the vices and the curses of intoxication. 

Fired by the spirit of nationality, and inspired by its 
" Councils," he has stood forth among the brightest, the greatest, 
and the best impersonations of the Spirit of American 
Patriotism. 

YIII. 

Mrs. Houston's maiden name was Margaret Moffatt Lea, of 
Marion, Alabama. Their oldest boy, Sara, is about eleven years 
of age. The four daughters are named Nancy Elizabeth, 
Margaret Lea, Mary William, and Antionette. The youngest 
child is a boy, and he has been named Andrew Jackson Hous- 
ton. General Houston's residence is at Independence, Texas. 
He was immersed in November, 1854, by Rev. Rufus C. Burle- 
son ; and he is a member of " the Independence Church." 



IX. 

General Houston lives in a log house, and we are informed by 
a gentleman who visited him recently, that he still retains the 
chairs which he owned while President of the Republic. These 



HIS PRIVATE CHARACTER. 391 

chairs have turned posts, and they are bottomed with cow-hides 
tanned with the hair on. Everj^hing about his home, indicates 
frugality ; for he has devoted more time and attention to the 
salvation and prosperity of his country, than to the acquisition 
of wealth. Holding the position twice, as President of the 
Republic of Texas, had he been less honest than he is, he could 
have amassed boundless wealth ; for he could have gathered into 
his hands extensive domains of land, which, at the time, fell into 
the possession of others, who had rendered few or no services to 
the State. Had he been disposed to profit by the station he 
held, he could now have been the owner of hundreds of thou- 
sands of dollars of Texas liabilities, which will soon enrich 
those who hold them. But instead of this, we are assured on 
reliable authority, that he has never speculated to the extent 
of a single dollar in soldiers' lands, or Texas stocks — and yet, 
in the opinion of men, he might have done it without any 
imputation of dishonor. But Houston has always been 
governed by a higher code of honor than most men are guided 

by. 



In his private relations, no one who regarded the truth, has 
ever dared to arraign his honesty, or his punctuality. Hence, 
after more than forty years in public life, he is at this time a man 
of moderate fortune : not rich, nor has he ever cared for more 
than a competency for himself and a young family, to whom he 
wishes to leave only a spotless reputation. 

And now, when he has finally retired from the Senate, to 
his distant home on the far-off frontier — full of honors, and 
surrounded by the halo of victory — we learn that he has added 
a new lustre to his private character, by uniting himself with 
the Christian Church, as a humble communicant in the great 



392 Houston's mastery of himself. 

body of worshipping believers, who have confided all they have 

to hope for here and hereafter, to the Saviour of the world. -J 

XI. 

Such a record as this, ought not to invade the privacy of that 
sanctuary where man holds communication with God. But 
there are millions of our countrymen who will join with us, in 
the honest congratulation that such a man as this, who never 
was awed in the presence of human power, should sit in penitent 
reverence, at the feet of Him who was baptized by the Prophet 
of the Desert, before he went forth to redeem mankind. 

XII. 

Thus we find ourselves at the close of our narrative. Would 
that some better pen had performed the task ! But we could 
not forbear to make this ofi'eriug, however unworthy it may be, 
to history, to heroism, to virtue, and to truth. 

If then it be an honor to human nature to repent, and abandon 
errors of opinion, and frailties of conduct, why may not the 
biographer rejoice to weave the woof of such a history as 
Houston's, and throw it before the world, that all the wrong a 
great man may have, perhaps, inflicted by the splendor of his 
talents — and above all a man who stooped to waste his time as 
Charles James Fox did, in garnishing vice by his genius, and 
ornamenting it by its elevation — may be at last atoned for, 
by the reformation of the admired individual transgressor? 
" Greater is he that ruleth his own spirit, than he that taketh a 
city." Gen. Houston has for many years been the father of a 
family ; and no man better illustrates the virtues that belong to 
that relation. A soldier in many wars, and a hero in the 
achievement of the liberties of two Republics — a file leader in 



APPEAL FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE. 393 

the great movement which is to give America back to the Ame- 
ricans — an enemy of all sections and factions, and a champion 
of the country in which he was born — superior to party — greater 
than all isms — a national man, who has fought, and bled, and 
lived for the great North American Republic — such a man pre- 
sents one of the most captivating subjects of all history, for the 
pen of the biographer. 

Americans who have a country to live for, are looking to Gen. 
Houston, for the future. 



This Volume could hardly be brought to a better termination, 
than by a republication, from the vigorous pen of Edmund Burke 
of New Hampshire, of the following : — 

ADDEESS 

To the People of the State of JVew Hampshire, and of the United States. 

The General Committee of the Democracy of New Hampshire, 
having convened at Concord, on the 11th day of October, 1854, 
for the purpose of taking into consideration the present condition 
of the Democratic Party of this State and of the Union, after 
due deliberation, came to the conclusion to recommend and 
nominate Gen. Sam Houston, of Texas, as the people's candidate 
for the office of President of the United States, to be supported 
in the election which is to take place in 1856. And in taking a 
step so important, they have deemed it their duty to submit 
their reasons therefor, to the people of the United States. 

Two years ago, the great Democratic party of the Union was 
a powerful and triumphant party. Planted upon the rock of the 
Constitution and its compromises, and the great measures of con- 
ciliation and amity embodied in the acts of Congress, of 1850, 



394 THE SPIRIT OF UNION IN 1852. 

touching the subject of Slavery and the admission of new ter- 
ritory into the Union, it achieved the most signal and tran- 
scendent victories which ever crowned the efforts of any party 
since the formation of the Republic. Its triumph was complete. 
Its opponents were overwhelmed and confounded, by the omnipo- 
tence of that expression of the popular voice which elevated the 
present administration to power, and inaugurated a new era in 
the history of Democracy and of the Republic. The factions 
that had arrayed themselves against the peace and stability of 
the Union, were abashed and terrified at the magnitude of the 
disaster which fell upon them. The secret of the great Revolu- 
tion in the popular sentiment of the country, is to be sought 
only in the fact, that the Democratic party had pledged itself 
to the sacred maintenance of the Constitution and its compro- 
mises, and thus, to the preservation of the Union. It was the 
Union Sentiment of the country, which triumphed in that 
election. 

The completeness of this transcendent and unprecedented 
victory, gave reasonable ground of hope to the patriotic portion 
of the people, that the Democratic party would be consolidated 
upon the great and noble principles upon which it had so 
signally triumphed, and its ascendency thereby secured, at least, 
for the present generation. Such were the confident and 
cheering anticipations of the great body of the victorious party. 
The Democracy can hardly realize that those brilliant antici- 
pations, so well-founded and reasonable, should all be dissipated 
in the lapse of two short years, from the occurrence of the great 
event in which they originated. Such, however, is the melan- 
choly and disheartening fact. Almost from the moment of the 
inauguration of the present administration in ofiice, its course 
has been attended with defeat and disaster. Since its policy 
and measures have been developed, it has hardly succeeded in a 
single State in which elections have been held. In Maine, 



CHOICE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 395 

New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New 
York and Iowa, to which may be added Pennsylvania and 
Ohio, it has been defeated ; in some of the States, it has been 
overwhelmed. And in North Carolina, a State in which its 
policy might be supposed to be acceptable, it has succeeded with 
a greatly diminished vote. 

We point to these pregnant facts in the recent experience of 
the Democratic party under the leadership of the present incum- 
bent of the Presidency, without designing to enter into an 
explanation of their causes. It is enough that the Democratic 
party has suffered defeats, signal and unprecedented, in the 
States we have mentioned, indicating on the part of the present 
administration, a loss of the confidence of the people. But the 
future of the Democratic party would not be so overcast with 
clouds, as it now is, if the results of the elections in the States 
above mentioned, did not indicate more than simple defeat. In 
our judgment, they point unerringly to a disorganization and dis- 
solution of the Democratic party, as at present organized, unless 
some means can be devised by which the process of demorali- 
zation, so fearfillly begun, and so rapidly progressing, can be 
averted. 

This Committee have gravely and maturely considered the 
exigent perils which now environ the Democratic party, and we 
have deliberately come to the conclusion that there is no way by 
which it can be saved from defeat and overthrow, except by the 
immediate nomination by the people, for the oflBce of President 
of the United States, of some citizen of the Republic, distin- 
guished alike for his abilities, experience in public affairs, and 
unquestionable statesmanship. Such a man would serve as a 
rallying point for the disjointed fragments of the party, arrest 
the progress of demoralization, and reorganize its dissevered 
elements into a compact and consolidated organization. 

With a view of bringing about results so desirable, the demo- 



396 EVILS OF CAUCUSES. 

cratic republicans of New Hampshire, nominate and recommend 
for the office of President of the United States, Gen. Sam 
Houston, of Texas, to be supported by the people, independent 
of nomination's which may be made by Conventions, State or 
National. We nominate him as the people's candidate, and we 
invite our democratic brethren in other States, also to nominate 
him, in which event his election will be sure. 

We believe that in the present crisis of political affairs, it is 
expedient for the people to take the matter of the nomination 
of the chief magistrate of the Republic — the officer who, for the 
time being, represents the majesty and sovereignty of the people 
— into their own hands. The day when nominations by National 
Conventions will be respected, is past. They, like their prede- 
cessors. Congressional caucuses, have become obselete. The in- 
telligent and reflecting people of the United States cannot shut 
their eyes to the momentous and humiliating fact, that, as 
National Conventions are at present organized and conducted, 
no distinguished citizen of the Republic, who has gained the 
confidence of the people, by commanding ability displayed in a 
long life of eminent and valuable public service, can aspire to 
the Presidency. National Conventions rule all such men off the 
line of promotion to that exalted office. None but men of infe- 
riors-capacities, unknown to the people, and never thought of, 
except by intriguing demagogues, who, in elevating such men to 
the highest honors of the Republic, secure thefeby their own 
advancement in inferior spheres, can now hope for a nomination 
by National Conventions. Instead of being fair exponents of 
the popular sentiment. National Conventions now stifle and sup- 
press the will and voice of the people. Who can doubt that 
Gen. Cass was the choice of more than three-fourths of the 
democracy of the Union, as their candidate and standard-bearer 
at the last Presidential canvass ? Yet, he was excluded from 
the nomination by the late Baltimore Convention ; the event to 



JACKSON NOMINATED BY THE PEOPLE. 39t 

which the present embarrassment of the Democratic party may, 
in a great measure, be attributed. 

The only way in which these immense evils can be corrected, 
and the people restored to their sovereign and constitutional 
right to choose the Chief Magistrate of the Republic, of which 
they have been denied by the machinery of National Conven- 
tions, is, to take the business of making Presidents into their 
own hands — to make the nominations themselves, inasmuch as 
they have to make the elections. In such a manner was Gen. 
Jackson, the honored and revered of the people, and one of the 
most illustrious of Presidents, nominated and elected. He was 
nominated in opposition to the nomination of the old Congres- 
sional caucus of his day. That caucus was instituted in the 
early days of the Republic. It did good service in the struggle 
with the federalists, in the days of John Adams. By a Con- 
gressional caucus, Mr. Jefferson was nominated for the Presi- 
dency ; as were also his successors, Mr. Madison and Mr. Mon- 
roe. It was the regular nomination of the democracy of that 
day. Its last candidate was William H. Crawford, in 1824. 
Gen. Jackson was nominated and run as the people^s democratic 
candidodp. against the nomination of Mr. Crawford. And 
although he failed of an election in the House of Representa- 
tives, by trickery, he succeeded at the next election before the 
people. His success was the downfall of the old Congressional 
caucuses, which, like the National Conventions of the present 
day, had become the instrument of intriguing demagogues for 
their own aggrandizement. 

As Gen. Jackson was nominated by the people, we nominate 
Gen. Houston. We nominate him to be supported by the 
people, independent of National Conventions. And we invoke 
the people of all sections and States of the Union, to unite with 
us in the election of this distinguished and eminent man to the 
Chief Magistracy of the Republic. 



398 Houston's achievements. 

Is it asked, who is Gen. Houstou ? If so, the history of the 
Republic affords ample answer. His deeds and achievements 
have illustrated its most brilliant pages. He was born in the 
State of Virginia — like Gen. Jackson, he emigrated to Tennes- 
see. He was the companion, the friend and confidant of that 
illustrious man. Under the command of Gen. Jackson, he dis- 
tinguished himself by his bravery and courage at the celebrated 
Indian battle of the Horse Shoe. He was amimg the few 
friends whom the dying Hero of the Hermitage invited to his 
bed-side in the last moments of his ebbing life. Gen. Jackson 
knew him, stood by him, confided in him, and endorsed him as a 
true and honest man, and Gen. Jackson never endorsed anything 
that was untrue, false or spurious. No man living possesses 
more of the noble virtues of Gen. Jackson than Gen. Houston. 
And his career has been equally illustrious and brilliant. The 
most remarkable and wonderful Battle of San Jacinto will ever 
rank in history with that of New Orleans. Moreover his admi- 
nistration of the affairs of Texas, while it was an independent 
republic, and he its chief magistrate, was most able and con- 
summate. It was through his rare ability and tact, so far as 
Texas was concerned, that that State was annexed to the 
American Union. It was Gen. Houston who conquered Texas 
and brought her into the Union, thereby adding to the Republic 
a country as large, as beautiful, and as congenial in climate, as 
the Empire of France, and laying the foundation for the expan- 
sion of the Republic southward to the river Rio Grande, and 
westward to the Pacific Ocean, thus elevating her to the first 
rank among the nations of the earth. These are the achieve- 
ments of Gen. Sam Houston, of Texas. No public man now 
living in the United States, belonging to the Democratic party, 
has performed such signal service for his country, or shed such 
lustre upon its historic pages. 

Throughout his long career, Gen. Houston has been an 



THE FRIEND OF JACKSON. 399 

inflexible democrat. He is a disciple of the school of Jefferson 
and Jackson. He has filled many of the highest public offices, 
in all which, he has acquitted himself with remarkable ability 
and with unsuspected integrity. In all positions, the most 
responsible, as well as the most trying and perilous, he has been 
eminently successful. He has ever proved himself equal to any 
emergency in which he has been placed. As General, States- 
man, Orator and Legislator, he has displayed talents and ability 
of the first order. He is a man of honor. He keeps faith with 
the humblest as well as the highest. He has never broken his 
word with the humblest Indian with whom he has had to deal, 
nor with sovereign States. He believes in the sacredness of 
treaties, of compacts, and of compromises, whether in the form 
of conventions, constitutions, or solemn acts of Congress. He 
preserves his faith with the North, as he would require the 
North to preserve its faith with the South. Under his adminis- 
tration, the rights of all sections of the Union would be protected 
and preserved. He is a Union man, and never would permit 
this glorious confederacy of sovereign States to be dissevered by 
the aggressions of fanaticism on one side, nor by unjustifiable 
rebellion on the other. He would secure justice to the States 
and to the people. Such is the history *and character of " Old 
Sam Houston," the Hero of San Jacinto, the friend of Gen. 
Jackson, who was the great and beloved President of the peo- 
ple, as Gen. Houston will be if he shall be elected. 

Can he be elected ? We have no doubt of it. He can be 
elected, if the people say that he shall be. Let the people put 
him forward, and the politicians will be paralyzed. The great 
mass of the Democratic party will support him. They are tired 
of the feeble and incompetent contingent candidates imposed 
upon them by National Conventions, as they and the whole 
country are tired of mere military chieftains. Both have had 
their day. The people now want a man of talents, of character, 



400 Houston's availability. 

of experience — a well-tried statesman. Such are the wants of 
the Democracy — such the clemauds of the people generally. At 
present, the Democratic party have no commanding leader, and 
no well-defined system of political measures, to rally them to 
party allegiance. A man and a policy are now the great 
desiderata of the Democratic masses. Gen. Houston would 
command the support of the great body of the Democratic 
voters of the country. He would also receive the support of a 
numerous portion of the peojole who have hitherto acted with the 
Whig party. The utter prostration and defeat of that party, 
the permanent ascendency of the system of Democratic measures 
propounded to the country by General Jackson, the abolitioni- 
zation of the Whig party, and its consequent destruction as a 
national party, have drawn a large number of the people for- 
merly acting with the Whigs from the pale of the Whig organi- 
zation. Tney are now, in fact, without the limits of any party. 
In national sentiment, they sympathize with the Democracy. 
All this class of voters would give their support to Gen. 
Houston. 

The true interests of the people of the South, and especially 
those who are sincerely desirous of preserving and perpetuating 
the union of this gloriou*s confederacy of sovereign and independ- 
ent States, all point to Gen. Houston as the man, above all 
others, for the crisis now impending over the South and the 
country. They cannot fail to note the formidable and fearful 
combination now forming in the Xorth, under the banner of 
abolitionism, which has for its basis and incentive to action, 
unrelenting hostility to the institutions of the South, That com- 
bination will grow and expand in potency and virulence, until 
even the most sanguine will admit its danger, and tremble at the 
consequences which may flow from it. If, under such circum- 
stances, a man from the South, not acceptable at the Xorth for 
his conservative sentiments, shall be run for the Presidency, it 



UNFURL THE BANNER. 401 

will only augment the dangers and the perils which now menace 
the peace of the country and the stability of the Union. If a 
candidate from the North shall be nominated, who is in the 
least suspected of subserviency to the South, the danger will be 
still more increased. Gen. Houston is the only man who can 
meet and prostrate this portentous coalition of factions in the 
North to which we have alluded. The course which he took 
with respect to the Nebraska Bill, has placed him in a position 
which will command the confidence of the patriotic men of the 
North, and should commend him to the confidence of the South. 
While he has, with a courage and true intrepidity which com- 
mand our admiration, taken his stand in favor of the inviolable 
sanctity of compacts between the North and the South, no man 
can say that he is hostile to the institutions or the interests of 
either section of the Union. In the present crisis, we are confi- 
dent that the people of the South, will, on reflection, see in Gen. 
Houston the very man for the present emergency — the only man 
who can save the South and Union from the dangers which now 
impend over them. 

We, therefore, unfurl the banner of the veteran Hero and 
Statesman, fearlessly to the breeze, confident of ultimate victory. 
We, as a part of the people, independent of any organization of 
politicians, nominate Gen. Sam Houston, as the People's candi- 
date FOR THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT OF THE UnITED StATES, and 

we invoke our brethren, the Democracy of this State, and of the 
United States, and the people generally, to rally promptly 
around his banner, assuring them a glorious triumph in 1856. 

And, in conclusion, for the purpose of ensuring ef&cient co- 
operation among the friends of Gen. Houston, we recommend the 
immediate formation, by the people, of San Jacinto Clubs in 
every State, district and town in the Republic. 

On motion, voted, That the proceedings of this meeting be 



402 FINIS. 

signed by the officers thereof, and published in the State Capital 
Reporter, and other Democratic papers. 

On motion, voted, That when this Committee adjourn, it be 
to meet at the call of the President, at such time and place as 
he may designate. 

Yoted to adjourn. 

WILLIAM PRESCOTT, President, 



3TMAN, ) 



William Tenney, , 

WiLLUM W. Eastman, 



FINIS 



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" The book bears the impress of true genius, and is not unworthy the pen of a Dickens." 
— Hampshire {3fass.) Gazette. 

" This book is an excellent one for the parlor, study, or quiet fireside." — Chicago Daily 
Times. 

» It is a book that arouses and rivets the attention."— i\r. F. Evening Mirror. 



J. c. derby's publications. 



JACK DOWNING'S NEW BOOK! 



•WAY DOWN EAST; 

OB, PORTRAITURES OF YANKEE LIFE. 

B T SEBA SJflTir, ESQ. 

Illustrated, 12mo. Price $1. 

" We greet the Major, after a long interval, with profound pleasure and respect. Well 
do we remember how, years ago, we used to pore over his lucubrations on the events of 
the time — how he enlightened us by his home-views of the Legislature's doings, of the 
Gineral's intentions, and of the plans of ambitious Uncle Joshua. Here was the ' spot of 
his origin,' and around us were the materials from which he drew his stores of instructive 
wit. Therefore we, of all the reading public, do the most heartily greet his reappearance. 
We find him a little more artistic than of old, more advanced in grammar and orthography, 
but withal displaying the same intimate knowledge of Down Eastdom, and retaining the 
same knack of genuine Yankee humor. In fact, taking all things together, no other 
writer begins to equal him in the delineation of the live Yankee, in the points where that 
individual differs from all the ' rest of mankind.' This is his great merit as an author, 
and one which the progress of manners will still further heighten — for it is only in some 
portions of our own State that the I'eal Yankee can now be found. 

" The present book has sixteen chapters devoted to home-stories. They are racy and 
humorous to a high degree." — Portland Daily Advertiser. 

" It is now generally conceded that Seba Smith is the ablest, and at the same time the 
most amusing delineator of Yankee life who has hitherto attempted that humorous style 
of writing — not excepting even Judge Ilaliburton himself. This is no rash expression, for 
there is not a passage in 'Sam Slick' so graphic, funny and and comical, but we find 
equalled if not surpassed in the sensible and philosophic, although ludicrous epistles, of 
» Major Jack Downing '—epistles of which we defy the most stupid to glance at a para- 
graph without reading the whole." — Philadelphia News. 

*' This is a book of real Yankee life, giving the particulars of character and incidents In 
New England, from the Pilgrim fathers and their generations, Connecticut Blue Laws, and 
the civic and religious rules, customs, &c., from the Nutmeg State away down East, as far 
as Mr. Jones ever thought of going. It is a very laughable affair, and every family in all 
Yankeedom will enjoy its perusal."— iTingrAam {Mass.) Journal. 

" There are few readers who do not desire to keep up an acquaintance with the original 
Major Jack Downing, whose peculiar humor, while it is irresistible in its effects, is never 
made subservient to immorality. But these stories are an improvement on those originally 
given by the author, as they are illustrative of Yankee life and character in the good old 
times of the Pilgrim Fathers."— C/imiiara Advocate and Journal. 

" The stories are the most humorous in the whole range of Yankee literature, full of 
genuine wit, rare appreciation of fun, and giving an insight into human motive which 
shows the close observation and kee.'j; relish of life, of a good-humored philosopher." — 
Saturday Eventing Mail. 

" A charmingly interesting book, this, for all who hail from Down East, or who like to 
read good stories of home life among the Yankee3,"--)5a^OT Heffister. 

11 



J. C. DERBY S PUBLICATIONS. 



EXTRAORDINARY PUBLICATION! 



MY COURTSHIP AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 

BY EEKBY WIKOFF. 
A true account of the Author's Adventures in England, Switzerland, and 
Italy, with Miss J. C. Gamble, of Portland Place, London. 1 elegant 
12mo. Price, in cloth, $1 25. 

The extraordinary sensation produced in literary circles by Mr. WikoEf's charming 
romance of real life, is exhausting edition after edition of his wonderful book. From 
lengthy reviews, among several hundred received, we extract the following brief notices 
of the press : 

" We prefer commending the book as beyond question the most amusing of the season, 
and we commend it without hesitation, because the moral is an excellent one." — Albion. 

" With unparalleled candor he has here unfolded the particulars of the intrigue, taking 
the whole world into his confidence — ' bearing his heart on his sleeve for daws to peck 
at'-r-and, in the dearth of public aiauseraents, presenting a piquant nine days' wonder 
for the recreation of society."— iT. Y. Tribune. 

" The work is very amusing, and it is written in such a vein that one cannot refrain 
from frequent bursts of laughter, even when the Chevalier is in positions which might 
claim one's sympathy." — Boston Etening Gazette. 

" A positive autobiography, by a man of acknowledged fashion, and an associate of 
nobles and princes, telling truly how he courted and was coquetted by an heiress in high 
life, is likely to be as popular a singularity in the way of literature as could well be thought 
of." — Rome Journal. 

"The ladies are sure to devour it. It is better and more exciting than any modern 
romance, as it is a detail of facts, and every page proves conclusively that the plain, 
unvarnished tale of truth is often stranger than fiction." — Baltinipre Dispatch. 

" The book, therefore, has all the attractions of a tilt of knight-errants— with this addi- 
tion, that one of the combatants is a woman— a epecies of heart-endowed Amazon."— 
Neroarlc Daily Mercxiry. 

" If you read the first chapter of the volume, you are in for ' finis,' and can no more 
stop without the consent of your will than the train of cars can stop without the consent 
of the engine,"— Worcester Palladium. 

'• Seriously, there is not so original, piquant and singular a book in American literature : 
its author is a sort of cross between Fielding, Chesterfield, and Rochefoucault."— .B(?s/<?« 
Cfhronicle. 

"With the exception of Rosseau's Confessions, we do not remember ever to have heard 
of any such self-anatomization of love and the lover." — Jf. Y. Expi'ess. 

" The book has cost us a couple of nights' sleep ; and we have no doubt it has cost its 
author and principal subject a good many more." — I^. Y. Evening Mirror. 

"The work possesses all the charm and fascination of a continuous romance."— Ji''. Y. 
Journal of Commerce. 

Lb ^*^'9 




SAisr iK)rsT()X 



